The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge: *** John Swarce wins! *** - Page 3

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES OPEN UNTIL 3/4 8pm EST**

A quick recap: With a little more than two days to go (at this writing) there are, by my count, eighteen (18) people remaining who indicated via placeholders a desire to participate in the HTF 2008 AI7 Top Ten Challenge but who have not yet submitted their lists. These people are, in no particular order:

Dan Keefe
Jed M
Lucia Duran
TonyD
JarrettJ
Jeff Meyers
loganhunter2002
Scooter
gregstaten
Aaron Silverman
Betty R
Parker Clack
Joe S.
TheMonk
logan8246
John Swarce
jason SMI
Elena S

If your name is on the above list (or if you want to enter but didn't indicate this previously) please remember to submit your selections before the absolute deadline which is 8:00 pm EST on Tuesday March 4, 2008.

Thank you.

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES OPEN UNTIL 3/4 8pm EST**

With a little more than 5 hours to go before the entries close here's where we stand:

We currently have twenty (20) members entered with another twelve (12) who have yet to respond to their "placeholders." I'm still waiting to hear from:

Dan Keefe
JarrettJ
Jeff Meyers
loganhunter2002
Scooter
gregstaten
Betty R
Joe S.
TheMonk
logan8246
jason SMI
Elena S

If any of you know someone on this list and want to give them a quick heads up let them know that entries close at 8pm EST sharp with no exceptions. Nobody is obligated to enter but I'd hate for someone to miss out when interested.

As soon as entries are closed I will be linking you to a site where I have an MS Excel spreadsheet with all the entrants and their picks.

Full details will follow.

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES OPEN UNTIL 3/4 8pm EST**

Sorry, Bryan, but once you submit a list it is final. Check the rules. It is very specific on this point. I've already logged your choices into my spreadsheet and checked it against all other entries to make sure that there is no duplication of another list (the only reason that a submitted list would be rejected.) I'm not trying to be a hard ass about this, but if I allowed people to arbitrarily change lists it would be a nightmare to administer because I'd have to go back and check every new list against ones already submitted.

You take a risk by entering early but you also stand a better chance that nobody else can submit "your" list before you do. It's a personal decision, but once made, you have to stick by it. We've even had situations in past contests where a person chose to submit a list before we had gotten down to the "sweet sixteen" point and one of his selections didn't even make it to the Top 16. With David H., if we turn the TV on tonight and find out he's gone (I doubt it) then I'll list him as leaving at position #16 for scoring purposes. And if they replace him with another contestant at this point, that person will be on nobody's list. All entrants in our contest will be in the same boat.

If it's any solace, I also have David H. in my list and might not have picked him if I knew about his "past." Heck, I even have "DUI" Amanda in my top ten so I've assembled a real rogues' gallery here!



Actually, who knows at this point what will happen? It might actually play to David H.'s advantage to have some juicy tidbits hanging out there (no pun intended). He might become Sanjaya 2008. And if Amanda gets pissed at Simon she might just run him over some day. Just wait until you get a little deeper into the competition before getting deeper in dog doo, babe!

Our mantra here is (for all entrants): You made your list, now you live with it.

I trust that you understand.

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES OPEN UNTIL 3/4 8pm EST**

TonyD only "updated" his placeholder message. He might have also added some last names, etc. but his list has never changed as far as contestants are concerned.

Speaking of which:

It has now passed the deadline (8pm EST) so this contest's entries are now officially closed. Give me a few minutes to organize everything and I'll post the total counts, etc.

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES NOW CLOSED**

O.K. Here's the final tally for entrants:

20 members have entered.

15 are eligible for the DVD prize package (titles to be announced as we get closer to the end of AI7). (5 people are either HTF moderators, significant others or, in the case of phil-w, graciously declined because he won our last prize contest).

If you look at the first message in this thread you will see the complete list of entries. I'll be updating the scores each week after the votes are in. In addition there is a link in the first message to the MS Excel spreadsheet that I use to keep track of things if you want to see each contestant's list and the tallies (you need MS Office or a spreadsheet reader to open the file).

Let the games begin! Remember, it's for the glory and for most of you, for some DVDs. But the real goal is to see if anyone can best "The Dheiner Nine" the remarkable total score of 09 points established by Dheiner in a previous contest. That's probably an impossible (and very impressive) task!

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES NOW CLOSED**

Hi John! I believe this thread already is a sticky. The reason that it doesn't appear as the very first sticky in the thread is that there are other stuck messages ahead of it. In any event it should be showing up near the top. Unless something has changed, "stickies" stay at the top regardless of last posting date. The particular thread tends to get fewer posts now that the contest has started, but it should still be "up there."

Actually, your "edit" occurred before I entered your list into the spreadsheet (no big deal). Had that happened I would have had to stick with your original entry. Once I apply the **Entry Recorded** tag, it's official. The only other issue would have been in the case of identical lists where the date stamp would have determined who got in under the wire first.

Thanks for the kind words on the Excel Spreadsheet. It's actually a very easy way to enter data and names because of the type ahead feature of Excel. (That's why I like to have consistency in the entry names.) The three "David"s were a bit of a pain but no big deal. With 20 entrants this is still an easy sheet to manage. If we go up to, say, 50 or more entries then I would have to break out my old Excel reference texts and re-learn how to construct "look-up" tables. In that way I can enter a score once each week and all lists on the spreadsheet will automatically be updated. I haven't really dealt with "look-up" tables since Lotus 1-2-3 and, I believe, Visicalc. But that gives away my age.


BTW, congrats on the fast start out of the gate. You and Yee-Ming are the only two players with perfect (00.0) scores after the first week. Remember, the "record" is 9 points for the complete season (!) and probably one of those records that will not be surpassed easily.

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES NOW CLOSED**

I feel the pain, albeit a little less. Asia'h was relatively high up on my list as well. But a bit of solace comes from the fact that positions lost early in the game become spots that can't get any further points attached to them. That's what makes this such an interesting contest format. Just because you accumulate a lot of points early on doesn't mean you are completely out of it. If those ahead of you don't remain accurate in their contestant placement you could be back in the fray before you know it.

And that's one reason why Dheiner's final score of 9(!) in the Survivor:China Top Ten Challenge is so damn impressive!

Scoring Update Information

O.K. Gang. The first round of eliminations (#16, 15, 14 and 13) is now history and I've updated the scoring for the contest. Because it was not made clear who went where I'm assigning 14.5 points to each of the people let go last night. (It's the average score of 16, 15, 14 and 13.) If you will look at the first message in this thread you will see a full accounting of all current scores and other pertinent information. In fact, each week you should check the top of that message for any scoring updates. Obviously, don't look at it until you have watched the show as it is a spoiler of the first magnitude.

Re: The 2008 American Idol (#7) HTF Top Ten Challenge:**ENTRIES NOW CLOSED**

While your logic seems reasonable I don't think that it was ever mentioned that Chikezie was in the "bottom three" males during this week's elimination show. As you know, the AI producers like to "play" the audience a bit for maximum effect. For all we know, the first "safe" male (or female) for that matter, might have been in the bottom three of their respective categories. Once the results are in, the producers can script Seacrest's elimination mantra any way they want. (Just think of the way that "votes" are pulled from the container on Survivor during the weekly elimination ceremonies. Clearly someone on the staff arranges them for maximum dramatic effect. The law of averages precludes the possibility of every drawing resulting in the order of names called being so dramatic. )

As we progress into the single-elimination weeks this does normally change a bit. It's fairly standard procedure for the "bottom three" to be identified as such to build the drama and in that case (where they specifically state this) we are dealing with specifics. But that still doesn't mean that this will be the procedure used each and every week.

Stay tuned....