Our first actual on-site polls (I hope they work!)

These are our B-Side matches – lesser-known tracks put under the spotlight. Four head-to-heads with 12 more to come, assuming these function as planned.

First off, Detroit proto-techno from MODEL 500 vs Monsoon’s SHEILA CHANDRA

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Then it’s an industrial v hair metal clash – COIL v RATT

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Dancehall don TENOR SAW is up against alternative pop songwriter MARTI JONES

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And finally a brutal indie-on-indie match between WORLD DOMINATION ENTERPRISES and THE LOFT

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I’ll be advertising this secret den of polling violence on Twitter too, comment there or here – ultimately I want comments to mostly move here though, but it’ll be much easier once we do Twitter integration on the new site.

As you probably know, Elon Musk is threatening to make Twitter polls a subscriber-only feature

As you may also know, we’re launching a dedicated Pop Polls site here at the start of May, as part of a general relaunch of the site with individual ‘homepages’ for Popular, the Polls, and everything else.

But this leaves the current Twitter poll – about 1985 – in a kind of limbo. So we’ll be running the rest of THAT on this site before the relaunch. (If Musk doesn’t fuck polls up we’ll probably just do the B-Sides here)

It’s also an opportunity to try out the poll widget I want to use on “live” polls and users.

One very important thing: these 1985 polls will use the same plug-in, but the look and feel of the actual new site will be a lot smoother, easier for commenting, better on mobile, etc. I fully expect this to be a bit clunky at best as an interim solution, so hopefully you won’t be thinking “OH NOES the polls are doomed!” on the basis of the ’85 stuff.

We’ll be starting off later with the 1985 B-Sides, but first of all I want to make sure people can actually vote, so here’s a 1985 Test poll I made quickly.

So the first question is – can you vote in this? You should be able to if you’re logged in, but not otherwise.

If not, what ID is it asking for? (We want to make it so you can use Twitter ID to login)

If yes, can you vote more than once? (Ideally the answer is NO)

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The May pop poll will be an open entry CHARITY POLL, raising money for international aid charity ActionAid and UK refugee education charity the Ruth Hayman Trust. 

I’ve set up 2 fundraising pages.

Ruth Hayman

ActionAid

For each fundraiser you donate to, you can pick 2 songs to go into the poll, so a possible total of 4 songs. No limits (no no there’s no limits) as to what. Well, hardly any.

Details at the links. This doubles as my 50th birthday fundraiser, so throw in a few quid to celebrate that if you’d like and pick a favourite song!

The WORLD CUP OF 1985 will be happening next month, and the plan is that it’ll mark the moment when we FLEE the Musk-ridden cesspoll of Twitter and instead make peoples-pop dot com our polling home.

Most of the nominations will be on Twitter today but if you are an ex Twitter user keen to rejoin the polls once we move, and want to nominate, this is the thread for you. (If you are still on Twitter, ignore this and nominate there as usual please!)

If you don’t know anything about our pop polling ways, these guidelines should fill you in nicely. If you’re a veteran, nothing’s changed – 4 nominations and you’re guaranteed to get one as your main pick.

Pop poll people who are on Mastodon – feel free to tell your tusk site pals about this too.

EDIT: Nominations are now CLOSED and here’s the finished list, from Zazou Bikaye to the 1985 Chicago Bears.