As for the poll and the influence (or whatever portion of the poll you are trying say constitutes some type a “real” influence that should be counted, beyond the effects of the hacking), skewed polling techniques are standard advertising operating procedure, and can be manipulated and generated a lot of ways. If you honestly think that a more highly mobilized fan-base necessarily means a fan-base that is a larger percentage of the general populace (ie the persons being influenced), then you really are a sucker for advertising. Yes, anybody could swing the vote that way if they mobilized enough … but then not everybody will have that same motivation will they? A company making even banner-ad dollars, let alone subscriptions, will have much more incentive to drum up people to go vote than just about anybody else … greed is a great motivator and airtime/web-hits generate cash. anybody who tells you differently is selling something … and it looks like you bought it.

“Seattle Mom, on May 5th, 2009 at 3:36 pm Said:

Well, if porn is the new tobacco they should put a sin tax on it. In this economy we could use the revenue. Tax the porn!”

Most pornography nowadays is available for free, so it’s impossible, if not impractical to tax pornography. Even if you put a 5, 10, 20, or 100% tax on it. 100% of zero is still zero.

Walt D in LV

It is very similar to Howard Stern, and his bid for governor of New York years ago. His enormous popularity and influence would have succeeded in him becoming governor, were it not for his dropping out of the race.

Oprah Winfrey is another person who has an enormous influence. She only needs to make a casual reference to something (e.g. a book) and it immediately tops the best seller list. This is the kind of influence that Time is talking about, and the fact this man made the list proves his influence.

Walt D in LV

P.S. Likewise, ANYONE else could recruit and/or request their fans/following to flock to the site to vote so that they may make the list.

Here is a more detailed account of how they hacked it – http://musicmachinery.com/2009/04/15/inside-the-precision-hack/

One of the person that hacked Time’s list –
“Zombocom joked to one of his friends “it would be funny to troll Time.com and put us up as most influential, but since we are not explicitly on the list we’ll have to spell it out. â€? His friend thought it was impossible. But two weeks later, “marblecake’ was indeed spelled out for all to see at the top of the Time.com poll.

So what is the significance of ‘marblecake’? Zombocom says: â€? Marblecake was an irc channel where the “Message to Scientologyâ€? video originated. Many believe we are “deadâ€? or only doing hugraids etc, so I thought it would also be a way of saying : we’re still around and we don’t just do only “moralfagâ€? stuff .”

Perhaps Opera is less “pervasive” than Britney Spears. That’s not to say Britney could do what Opera does. It’s to say that her cumulative impact, or Kobe’s impact, however devoid the message is of power, is more completely encoded into the mindscape.