first of all, i wouldn't be writing anything here if it weren't for the heading, pineapple thief abuse. this topic now has the word abuse, tagged onto everything that go on this page. it does imply corruption or deception. i haven't put any words into anyone's mouth. i didn't open the topic i'm just trying to clarify something's said here. and perhaps i owe you an apology. i asked a few short questions and none of them were answered.
 
when i first read your post it seemed as though you were on a good plight and found some people may have abused a reviewing system. your intentions were honest and you should receive recognition for exposing such practices. it's sometimes hard to read every word someone writes on sites like this as one may try to skim a bit to weed out jabbering. so, after re-reading every word i'm still perplexed.
 
on your first response the guy says he actually likes the pineapple thief and you shouldn't point the finger at them as there may by others that do this as well. for the next two posts you hammer out stats and show concern about advertisers. and for several posts on people tend to all agree that something should be done to prevent people from abusing a review system with several great ideas. maybe at this point the topic should have been changed to, review abuse but it wasn't and still had the pineapple thief pinned to it.
 
your very next post you seem glad for those that responded so far were on your side and that's where you could have easily put in your closing, enough said. the topic would have probably ended and it would have been a dead issue. but you wanted to continue and that's where you pulled in the SoT voters. what you've done is fuse the two together. you say, if you think i am smoking dope, go to Sea of Tranquility and look at their january poll. best album of 2008. 40 options. guess who is winning? pineapple thief by a wide margin. i wouldn't want to implicate bruce in this bs but they certainly have a loyal following it would seem. a following who isn't afraid to color outside the lines.
 
although you tried to exclude bruce you've made it clear you were amazed at such results with 40 options. and you were certain they have a loyal following, that isn't afraid of coloring outside the lines. without putting words into your mouth, do you mean, cheating?
 
now what you've done is incorporate anyone that participated in the survey and dragged them into your topic, pineapple thief abuse.
 
then tony brings it back to the review issues and has great insight, hence review abuse. perhaps he can control reviews better. sid won't even post a note if it's off topic. but it is the freedom of speech thing. anyway, everyone see's something should be done. but you can usually see through a bad review and star rating.
 
now comes the confusing part. amcy had some valid points and you wanted to address the reviewers with multiple accounts and star system scandal. you skipped past the part of SoT and went on to say that you never said the SoT poll was fixed. and just used it as an example that there are fans of the band who may be willing to go above and beyond to get PT more notoriety.sorry,but i'm not sure you can separate yourself that easily as you just stated the fans are willing to go above and beyond,do you mean, cheating? and we are still under the heading pineapple thief abuse, right. then you continue but with doubt that bruce prodded someone to do it and you would doubt with 99.9% certainty. but your not clear, do you mean SoT or the reviews? you go on to tell amcy, he thinks everything is just fine when there is clear abuse. still uncertain but it sounds like your back on the review part. so, you've tried to get out of thing he was wondering about, which was the SoT survey.

i hope you can know see that there is two parts to this topic. one is the review and the other is SoT. so, with that in mind i was only concerned about the SoT survey and thought i made that point. you say me and amcy give these people the benefit of a doubt and i would have to say your back on the review thing now and i'm not willing to give anything away. your just flip'n and flop'n here. get it right, we see smoke and infer fire also.

and the best part is, you say you could care less about the whole thing and just wanted to let admin. in on your findings. well,then you did care. and they took action. that's a good thing. just don't drink that bong water.

oh yeah, i laughed (almost fell off the chair laughn') when i heard the record collection wasn't even his. that's like posing next to, bar refaeli and saying that she's your girlfriend.

listener of prog for forty years, peace.

see ya on another topic.

i already commended you on your findings and have forgotten about that part of the post.

i'm not picking apart your post and made certain to quote your exact words.

you are and probably will continue to avoid the fact that you roped the SoT survey by way of example into this thread. and that's what i have been talking about.

and you missed point of the title thing.

and now your asking what if 500 impartial listener would have partaken in the survey. what, why would impartial listener even be on such a site.

you say i lost sight of the problem here,when in fact already praised your detective work, are you really reading what i'm posting or you to busy making chowder.

i don't think you will ever recognize that you put the survey into the same shame as the sad reviewers you discovered, by way of example. that's all i was trying to say.