The best ‘Best of’ ever

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

We’re trying something new this year. Last week, we soft-launched our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada. We added a hundred or so categories, and if the plan works, we’re going to add hundreds more. I’m sure you know about our Best Of, but for those who don’t, the Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada is our once-a-year readers’ poll in which we ask you to tell us about your favorite businesses, people and culture. We always put a ton of resources into it, and we have a huge party at the end and many groups in town vie to see who can generate more votes than their competitors.

We’re doing this for a couple of reasons. First, our Best Ofs have been so popular that we’re trying to figure out a way to extend the fun. Second, I’ve always felt that as huge as our Best Of has become, the time for filling out categories has become compressed. I think that forced people to vote for who they think is the “best” at that moment. With this new method, people can return any time they want to change votes or add a category.

The idea is you fill out our ballot, which you’ll find at the top right of the www.newsreview.com/reno home page. Just click that button with the finger on it that says, “Biggest Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada ever! Vote here and be a part of history.” And when you get to the last group, Freestyle, you add your categories—best streetsweeper, best tagger, whatever. We’ll add the new categories to the ballot on or near the first of each month between now and Oct. 16, when it’s published in our little newsweekly. You’ll be able to edit your ballot as many times as you want—just don’t forget your password.

We’ll also be trying hard to catch ballot-box stuffers. There’s no rule against enlisting your friends to vote you “the best barroom comedian,” but we only allow five e-mail addresses from the same IP. Really, we want our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada to be the biggest, most accurate, most fun Best Of in the area. Or the universe, for that matter.