Finally, thankfully, the 2023 season has come to a close. It was a miserable slog, from a terrible April to a sell-off in July to a September that meant nothing. Let’s not do that again, shall we? While we wait for the playoffs to conclude so that the Cardinals can get to work remaking this team, I am dusting off the cobwebs of this place and bringing back our normal October project, the Top Cards on Twitter.
And yes, I know it is technically X but “Top Cards on X” seems like a series of posts OnlyCardsFans would do. Nobody calls it that anyway and I wouldn’t be shocked if at some point Elon Musk reverts back to the original name. I also wouldn’t be shocked if he winds up charging to use this service and everyone spreads to different locations. (This is where I remind you that I have a few Bluesky invites and that we have an active Discord server that everyone is welcome to join over here. If the link doesn’t work, let me know.) Twitter is always a weird thing but it used to be from the members not the owners.
Anyway, this is the 9th annual version of this opinion poll. The first year, 26 people voted in it. Last year, we were up to 222. It’s grown every year and I’m hopeful we’ll see 250 or more give their opinion on the names listed–and some that aren’t. (If you want to read last year’s series, here’s the post like this one and you should be able to follow the series from there.)
We’ve got a little drama this year. Because of the dominance of cardinalsgifs, we have a rule that if you win three times, you get put in our Cardinals Twitter Hall of Fame. (You still get put on the ballot, because otherwise people would complain, but your total doesn’t count toward the rankings.) Two years ago, it looked like we were going to get our second inductee. Derrick Goold had two wins under his belt and just needed another win. It felt like a formality.
Then she walked in.
Katie Woo took over The Athletic beat and finished at the top of the heap in her first year. Then, last year, she did it again.
There are strong odds that somebody, either Derrick or Katie, joins gifs in the elite circle. However, you never know until the voting is done. And that’s where you come in.
We’ve got just under 190 names on the list this year. I took last year’s ballot, took off those that weren’t active anymore or didn’t reach the cutoff threshold of being listed on a quarter of the ballots, then added in last year’s write-ins, those that requested to be added, or others I felt should be on here. So that’s a ton of people to sort through. Which brings me to the disclaimer I put out there every year.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO RANK EVERYONE ON THIS BALLOT! IF YOU HAVE NO OPINION ON THE ACCOUNT PLEASE LEAVE IT BLANK!
Some people think that, if they don’t know someone, they should click a 1 and move on. That ruins a lot of things. If you skip a person (and there’s nothing that requires you to vote on any number of people–sometimes people just vote for one person!) it won’t affect the averages and everything else I do. In fact, starting this year, if an entry looks like that was the case, that there are a lot of 1s and everyone is voted on, I’ll likely delete the entry. Seriously, nobody should have an opinion on every single one of these people! There are a lot of them I don’t know and I’m the one doing the list! So if you don’t know a person or don’t have much opinion on them, just skip it. Please.
Now, that doesn’t mean people can’t or shouldn’t be rated with a 1. If it’s someone that you really don’t like or have followed in the past and didn’t care for the experience, then sure go with a 1. I wouldn’t hand them out like candy or anything and I would hope very few people ever qualify for it, but this is a subjective measure and it’s different for everyone. Perhaps you lost money betting what Brendan Schaeffer recommended. Maybe you wish Cardinals Off Day had less wrestling references. Could be that Tito drives you crazy. Whatever goes into the measure you give, that’s up to you. I’d like to think the Cardinals content of the account would get the most weight–this is Top Cards on Twitter after all–but it’s not everything.
At the end of the list there’s room for 5 different write-in folks to be included and rated. If for some reason you need more than five, contact me (@C70, but you should know that) and I’ll see what I can do. Those that are listed here will wind up on the main ballot in 2024 so as to get more exposure.
The plan is to leave this open through Sunday, October 21. We might close up early if it dries up, might stay a little later if we’re close to that 250. I’ll be sharing the link quite often on Twitter so you won’t get a chance to forget, I don’t imagine. I believe Google Forms keeps your responses (if you are doing it on the same machine) so it may be something you do a few here, a few there, and not sit down and do all of it at the same time. But however you do it, just do it. I want to see your opinions and see how the Top Cards on Twitter shakes out this year! So now, let’s get at it.
