First off, thank you to everyone who has participated in this process, from the first suggestions on the original article, to the 503 people who voted in our first round of voting. (As mentioned on the Facebook page and in the comments of the last article, voting has closed for the first round.)
When we first started this, we were going to limit it to the Top 25 items. However, your response was so great that we were considering pushing the limit higher, and even getting rid of that limit. Well, the limit is back and it exists (Sorry, Kady Heron). We are going to have the cut off at 25, but before I get to how we determine what will be in the Top 25, I want to explain this second round of voting.
In the first round, I placed a text box on the last page asking for any last minute suggestions that were not on the original list. We got a lot of feedback (and 1 or 2 trolls) of what should be added. Just like the first round, I'm giving you guys the power. It will follow the same method at the first round, vote "Yay" or "Nay" on whether or not you think that item would make someone's Purdue experience unique.
Though it has been suggested, I am NOT adding a "Meh" or "Don't Care" or "Neutral" option for these items, and I ask that you vote for each item and not skip one. I do this because if I include the former, God knows that it would be the most popular option for most items, skewing the results and making it hard to decide if it makes the final cut. For the latter, I don't want one item only have 10 people vote on it, while everything else had 100+ people vote on it. I am also keeping "Yay" and "Nay" because 1) I'm obsessed with House of Cards and 2) I have a minor in Political Science and I want to use it.
Nearly all the items that you'll see in the 2nd round of voting were simply copied from the original suggestion (you can tell I'm starting to get a little lazy). I did edit the wording of some, as well as combined a few of the suggestions. Some suggestions are not on this list because they were combined with other items (like the Great Indoorsman or visiting other restaurants in Lafayette). Others were removed because I simply didn't like them and were wasting my time (very rare) or just did not fit in the list at all. As for graduating and walking the stage at Elliott to receive your degree, that will be a +1 at the end of the Top 25 (so basically item #26).
To vote in the last round, click here.
Now, here is how items will make it to the Top 25:
Out of all of the suggestions, (first and second rounds), the 25 items with the highest percentage of "Yays" will make the final cut. Since 503 people voted in the first round, I am requiring that at least 250 vote in the 2nd round before any item from the last round can be considered for the Top 25. I am willing to bring that down to 200, but let's aim for 250. Given the trend of the first round, usually after 100 votes the percentages do not change much. Also, the 25th highest "Yay" percentage from the first round is just over 67%, so the 250, or even 200, minimum should not be an issue.
Any other items that do not make the Top 25, BUT have more Yays than Nays, will be listed in the Honorable Mention.
As for the order of the list, that is still up in the air. It can either be based by percentage of "Yays", an order by which to complete the items (so start off by stuff you can do freshman year, end with stuff that can be done senior year/old enough to drink legally), how they were submitted, etc. I'll leave that up to you guys to discuss in the comments below. As mentioned above, there will be a 26th item, but that is reserved for graduating at Elliott.
As for the timeline, I hope to have the 2nd round of voting wrapped up by Sunday (August 3rd) and the final list out sometime next week. I'll make sure to pick a date where there aren't any big stories, but sometimes it's inevitable.
That should cover everything. If I missed something, I'll add it to the article. Link to vote is down below. Thanks alot, Boilermakers! You guys have been awesome.