What are the criteria for a club to make the Top 100?

CTQWERTY
Yet another topic berthed in the Blog portion of the site, being imported here as per Mister Guy's recommendation. Feel free to expound, etc.

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Does anyone know the criteria for a club making the Top 100?
by CTQWERTY
October 19, 2009
Obviously there's the rating average. But is there a certain number of reviews required before a club makes the list? I believe there's one club on the list of the Top 10 with only 50 reviews. I ask because I see Big Al's in Peoria, IL. would debut at #8 (or 9) nationally with it's 8.24 average. But it only has 35 reviews. Thanks, CT


Comments

MisterGuy on October 20, 2009
"But is there a certain number of reviews required before a club makes the list?"

Yes, the "magical" number of recent reviews/reviewers for a club to make that listing used to be between 8 & 13 (most likely 12), but I'm sure that's it been changed (upped) since late 2008.

"But it only has 35 reviews."

It's not really the number of reviews...it's the number of individual reviewers that counts. The rating that a club gets is dependent on things such as the number of reviews from reviewers with a "long" membership (which are weighted more than newbies), the number of reviews that are "recent" (from no more than around 2 years old or so), and a whole bunch of other things that founder likes to keep secret to prevent abuse, which is his right...since it's his website.

You should post this as a thread on the discussion board...as you'll likely get more responses that way.

25 comments

Latest

shadowcat
15 years ago
The answer is a minimum of 8.To stay in the top 100's it is much more. It is really hard to kick a club in the top 10 to kick them out. 100 hundred or more reviews says a lot.
DandyDan
15 years ago
I can certainly agree with the fact clubs need more reviewers. A number of places I've gone to would rank highly if only they had more people review them.
samsung1
15 years ago
What is interesting I think is when Christie's Cabaret in Cleveland, OH appeared on the list from out of nowhere onto spot 26. It is now spot 22.

I also remember reading that older reviews weigh less (or not at all) compared to the recent reviews.

When I was new to tuscl I did not know about the top 100...I just judged a club based of the number rating. Centerfolds in Columbus had a high number rating (something like a 7.8, the highest in Columbus). So I made a trip there only to be disappointed. The only reason it had a high rating is because it only had a dozen or so reviews.
I thought about making a 2-3 hour drive to Brad's Brass to celebrate it being ranked 1...but I knew it would not stay #1 for long so I did not bother.
samsung1
15 years ago
shadowcat, I remember Mickey's - Fayetteville, North Carolina was in the top 10 a few months ago but now is down to spot 35.
samsung1
15 years ago
One last example:
Flight Club in Inkster, MI. I believe that was a top 10 club, now it is 34.
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
Thanks for the replies.

Big Al's was remodeled around 12/07, and it shows in the reviews (34 total.) Only the club is in off-the-beaten-path Peoria, which translates to maybe 5 or so reviews a year. Maybe such a club needs to have it's average determined on a 3-year basis? If so, they may slide in around the 60s on the Top 100. But for a Friday night experience, that place was a steal. I only gave them a 7 for value because of the one-way contact laps and what it would be on the other nights of the week (ie not the special Friday discounts.)
shadowcat
15 years ago
My favorite club has 697 reviews. 8 years ago it was not heard of.A dancer named Carter and reviews by myself and shekitout changed that.It is now so popular that a rare low rating (7or less)cannot change its status. I gave it a 1 awhile ago to prove the point.
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
That's a lot of reviews! Hope the owner realizes your contributions.
shadowcat
15 years ago
CT, He does not give a shit.His gold mine was the Memphis Platinum Plus. It got busted more times than any other club. Eventually his lawyers could not stop it and the club got shut down.His name is Ken Wood. He still owns 5 clubs.The Columbia PP is now his jewel. I know where his office is.I have been there to serve letters objectionably to the loud music.Well that got me nothing.His goons told me that he was likely on the golf course.
samsung1
15 years ago
I have emailed three different clubs in Columbus, OH and never got a reply. I did email the CEO of Rick's and got a reply within minutes sent from his iphone. I should have invested simply because of the CEO's willingness to communication with customers...the stock was $4 and now is trading for $8.
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
Shadow, at least you didn't get "the goon" treatment, as you're still of good health I presume.

Sam, you ever check up on LNET, LodgeNet Entertainment, the folks who bring porn to all the hotels?
samsung1
15 years ago
Yeah I like the business idea behind LNET...but the company seems too speculative for me to consider investing a large amount of money. It is amazing that the stock was trading for $0.56 back in march 2009 and now it is at $7 per share. Would have paid off better than RICK investment.
samsung1
15 years ago
I actually should not be calling LNET or RICK "investments"...they are more like "gambles" or "bets"
minnow
15 years ago
MQ- Why don't you PM founder & ask him? Without getting into formulas/programs- general idea is the 100 clubs with the highest score that have a "meaningful" number of reviews/reviewers.
I don't know if it is total no. of reviews, or annualized average.
Now for the "score" factor: I understand that founder instituted some sort of "weighting" formula that somehow weighs various reviews/factors that only founder knows. Although it differs from longtime average reviwer score/ no. of reviewers, I still find good correlation between ratings & club enjoyability/desireability. I'm still baffled how some clubs get the score that they do.

ss1- If you make money, its' an "investment". If you lose money, its a "gamble", or "speculation".
MisterGuy
15 years ago
"The answer is a minimum of 8."

No, it isn't. As I've said before, the number of reviewers to get onto the List was upped (by quite a lot it seems) a long while back.

"What is interesting I think is when Christie's Cabaret in Cleveland, OH appeared on the list from out of nowhere onto spot 26."

This happens all the time. A strip club finally breaches the magical number of reviewers, and then it shows up on the List. As those reviews age with time, strip clubs may drop off of the List as well.

"it shows in the reviews (34 total.)"

Remember, it's NOT the total number of reviews that a strip club has...it's the total number of individual, unique *reviewers" that matters. For example, if you review a strip club 7 times over a two year or so period & I review the same place 2 times over the same period of time, your review ratings are averaged together via some unknown means & combined with the averages of my reviews (and everyone else's reviews). I know it sounds convoluted, but this was done so that one person alone cannot shill a club into the List.

"Maybe such a club needs to have it's average determined on a 3-year basis?"

Like I've said, the combined review rating for a club is based on a moving window of the last 2 years or so. Older review ratings are constantly being dropped whether new reviews are incoming for the same strip club or not.

"Why don't you PM founder & ask him?"

You can try, but I doubt that you'll get many details. founder is always honest though.
shadowcat
15 years ago
Let me correct that. The minimum of reviewers is 8. I wish founder would change his terminology. He has explained this before.I understand the formula.I only get one vote when reviewing any club.Yes he will work with you. But you have to remember that this is just a hobby for him to. He does not make any real money off this site.
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
"He does not make any real money off this site."

Not yet. I don't know whether it's in his intentions, but one metric I've heard other bloggers mention which establishes website value are clicks generated. The additional features recently added like the blogs, etc., certainly afford more opporuntiy for folks to interact with the site. If the community of users grows, so does the value of the site. One day, Founder may seek to sell and move on. Deja Vu may take over and then spam everyone with ads for it's clubs.

Mister G.: While I guess raising the number of reviewers to get on the Top 100 keeps it real for the membership, seems like it may penalize clubs in small cities like Big Al's. Big Al's is a better interior than 90% of the clubs I've visited. The dancers are above average with a few hotties, and it's full nude (even in couch dances at $20 per and them playing full-length songs.) Isn't there a Mons Venus or Spearmint Rhino at #4 with only 50 reviews & no extras available? If their per dance cost is $30, then surely a Big Al's could fit somewhere, like around the 60s on the nationwide list.
samsung1
15 years ago
"Deja Vu may take over and then spam everyone with ads for it's clubs. "

That already seems to have happened with stripclublist!

I was looking at the old cache of tuscl and found this info:
Ever want to own a website that turns over 1.2 MILLION pages per month?

Here are the simple facts:
Page Views: 1.2 Million Monthly (see the current count at the bottom of each page)
Years on Web: 6
Advertising Expenses: $0 / Monthly
ISP Charges: $240 / Monthly
Advertising Revenue: Limited only by your dreams
Sales Price: $150,000
Broker Co-op Welcome

Send any serious inquires to [email protected]

http://web.archive.org/web/2001103120025…

This was from 2001 back in the day when tuscl advertised having free picture galleries of porn! "Check out our new FREE PICTURE GALLERIES! (Guaranteed NO POPUPS!!)"
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
And to think, Sam: We're contributing content (reviews) free of charge!
MisterGuy
15 years ago
"The minimum of reviewers is 8."

Wrong again old man...that was changed a loooong time ago. If what you said were true, the Top 100 List would look MUCH different! Give it up...

"While I guess raising the number of reviewers to get on the Top 100 keeps it real for the membership, seems like it may penalize clubs in small cities like Big Al's."

Hey, I'm not defending the current rating system at all. In fact, I've gone on record several times before as saying that a lot of the changes to it in recent years sucked IMHO, but it's not my site...it's founder's. He can & should do whatever he wants to it. Just because a strip club isn't on the Top 100 List doesn't mean that it's a dump at all.

"Isn't there a Mons Venus or Spearmint Rhino at #4 with only 50 reviews & no extras available?"

I dunno...honestly, I don't check the Top 100 List very often. :)

"If their per dance cost is $30, then surely a Big Al's could fit somewhere, like around the 60s on the nationwide list."

I've never been, but I'm sure that if the strip club that you speak of continues to get more reviewers (especially ones that have been around a long time on this site & have a lot of quality reviews under their belts) to review it that it'll show up somewhere on the List soon. Good luck...
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
Mister G, Big Al's gets like 5 reviews a year. I'm surprised frankly it's as nice as it is now and at the caliber of women they have. It will be quite sometime before it makes the Top 100, I'm sure. Besides, Peoria is so far off the beaten path, it being on the Top 100 likely won't generate much additional business, etc. Maybe there needs to be a new section for "quality off the beaten path" places? Though the tab bar at the top of the site is looking a little filled.

How many clubs have ever offered half-price mixed drinks AND food on a weekend night, anywhere? Usually it's some special on the slower weekdays for other clubs I've visited.
MisterGuy
15 years ago
After looking at the strip clubs that are in the Top 100 List & that have the least amount of total reviews (Paradise Showgirls CA, Taboo CA, and Spearmint Rhino Dallas, TX), it looks to be like the minimum number of *reviewers* in the last two years or so to be on the List is at most 19 (and may be a tad lower).

You're preaching to the choir with me CTQWERTY... :)
CTQWERTY
15 years ago
Mister G., maybe Founder will replace "Spotlight on Las Vegas" with "Spotlight on a small club"?
shadowcat
15 years ago
I just shot founder a PM asking him to re post this info.
MisterGuy
15 years ago
Well, it seems like he's not going to "post this info", which is a good thing...since posting the exact criteria would allow shills (like YOU old man) to subvert the system.
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