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how tops & flops lists work
How lists work is a matter of understanding the following two items:
- What a Tops & Flops list looks like when you view it;
what
information it contains.
- How to find the Tops & Flops lists you want to see.
What lists looks like; what information they
contain
Each Tops & Flops list is about a particular category, subject, or theme
that is drawn from the arts. Each list has a title at the top followed by a
list of items and
additional or supplementary information. The list items may be ranked.
categories, subjects, and themes
Tops & Flops is a collection of lists about categories, subjects, or
themes in the arts. Virtually any aspect of the arts is potential candidate for a list.
Each Tops & Flops list deals with a single category, subject, or theme
drawn from the arts.
A specific list may deal with virtually any aspect of the arts that one can
imagine—any category, subject, or theme. For example, a single list
might address any one of the categories, subjects, or themes shown below:
- Moviemakers, music-makers, authors, TV personalities, stage
personalities, painters, sculptors
- Movies, music, books, short stories, TV shows, paintings, sculpture
- Performers, publicists, directors, set designers, publishers, editors,
impresarios
- Conductors, divas, jazz men, rock-and-rollers
- Genres from rock-and-roll to folk to classical
- Venues such as concert halls, exhibition halls, museums, libraries,
galleries
- Events such as historic performances, exhibitions
- Recordings and recording
- Art periods, movements, techniques
A typical list addresses such
issues as whether arts items on the list are good or bad, large or
small, too early or too late, important or unimportant, enlightened or
unenlightened, worth knowing about or not worth knowing about, etc.
Categories, subjects, or themes can be favorable, unfavorable, objective, or
neutral toward the items on the list. The category, subject, or theme of
each list is selected by the list-maker and is a representation of his
personal knowledge and opinions about the arts.
In essence, each list is an expression of a single list-maker's opinions
or objective knowledge about a single art category, subject, or theme. Since all
items on a list are about the same category, subject, or theme, a single
list is an expression of a single list-maker's knowledge and opinions about each of the items on the list—whether
each item is good or bad, neutral or indifferent,
early or late, etc.
More
list titles
List titles are names that make it easy to identify each list. A
list's title is the same as its category, subject, or theme.
For example, if
a list were about certain kinds of novels, the list's title (category, subject, or theme)
might be Best British novels of the 21st Century. In this example,
the list's title asserts that each item on the list is one of the best
British novels of the 21st century. Each item on the list is a British
novel and each novel is one of the best of its kind; there are none
better.
A list's title appears at the top of the list.
list items and additional content
Items on a list appear below the title at the top. There may be from one
to ten items on a given list.
Each item on a list belongs to (is an member of) the category, subject,
or theme named in the list's title. In the above example, the list bears the title Best British novels of the 21st
Century. Each item on the list cites a single, specific British
novel written or published in the 21st century that is the best of
its kind.
More
How to find lists you want to see
You have the option to browse through the collection or to look for just
the specific lists in the collection that are relevant to your interests. To
browse, simply visit the Tops & Flops Table Of Contents and click a subject
of interest. (see Manual Searching, next below).
There are three methods for finding lists that are relevant to your interests. Use them alone or in combination
with each other:
Method #1—manual searching
Tops & Flops offers a table-of-contents which
displays the title of every list in the Tops & Flops collection. The
title of each list cites its category, subject, or theme.
Since a list's title cites the list's category, subject, or theme, you can read through the table-of-contents to
look for lists that are about the category, subject, or theme you want to see. You can read list titles in the table-of-contents
the way you would read chapter titles in the table-of-contents of a book. Once you identify a
list that you want to see, simply click to open the page where the list is
located.
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—navigation— search
for Tops & Flops lists at the Tops & flops table-of-contentsTops & Flops lists are simple to understand and use. The best way to
understand how to use them and what they can do for you is to examine a few
samples.
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Method #2—the Tops & Flops automated table-of-contents
The Tops & Flops table-of-contents mentioned above is automated; it has features that allow you to automatically
search for words or phrases in the cited titles that are relevant to the
category, subject, or theme you are looking for. With the aid of these automatic features,
you can quickly and easily identify the lists that are about the category,
subject, or theme you are looking for and eliminate irrelevant lists. You can sort, print,
or otherwise
process these lists. Once you identify lists you want to see, click each
one to open it.
Finding lists you want to see using the automation features in the Tops
& Flops table-of-contents is as easy as 1-2-3:
- Visit the Tops & Flops table-of-contents page.
- Apply the keyword search feature and other automated features until
the table-of-contents is reduced to only Tops & Flops lists you want to
see.
- Click the title of each Tops & Flops list you want to see to open
the list.
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—tip— you can't
search for the contents Tops & flops lists at the Tops & flops
table-of-contents Table-of-contents searches only
find Tops & Flops lists based on their titles; they do not find
lists based on their contents. If you want to search the
contents of Tops & Flops lists, use Electricka's Search Tool (see
Method #3, below). |
Method #3—keyword searching with electricka's
search tool
Electricka's Search Tool is a keyword search engine similar in some
respects to Internet search engines such as Google or Yahoo. You may
already have used it to search for pages at Electricka's web site.
Since the Search Tool examines all the words on each page it searches,
when you use the Search Tool to perform keyword searches looking for Tops
& Flops lists, you will examine not just list titles, as with Method #2,
but you will also examine every word in every list in the collection.
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—tip— searching for Tops & flops
lists at electricka's Search
Tool Electricka's Search Tool finds Tops & Flops lists
that match keywords you specify, whether the words are located in list
titles or in list contents.
IMPORTANT: When you use Electricka's Search Tool to
find Tops & Flops lists:
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Follow the instructions you find on Electricka's
Search Tool page.
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Click the Category box
titled Tops & Flops Lists before you search.
See the instructions for
searching for Tops & Flops lists:
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—navigation— Do a
tops & flops keyword search now |
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