Is that top 40 for real?

The top 40 list and rating system are flawed, mostly because they are based on subjective reviews by a variety of reviewers. They don’t account for location bias. E.g., the best club in Maryland can’t hold a candle to mid tier clubs in Florida or Texas but people will give numerical ratings agains the clubs they know, or local clubs. That said, the lists are generally good if you want ideas if places to diligence and maybe visit. Don’t read too much into it.

Actually the top 40 clubs are going to be skewed towards the larger metro areas, because most reviewers review a few clubs near where the live, the reviewers that do a lot of traveling are pretty spot on, but I think they might be a distinct minority of the reviewers, Also I guess that most of the traveling reviews are concentrated in two or three states that are most popular with vacationers.

People wanted that list back so bad but it doesn’t mean much. If you like extras clubs though check out the review count one that could be a guiding light if your in that area. Just at alot of them don’t expect the best looking girls however.

The Top 40's are a bit unreliable for a number of reasons.

They're only based on the last 18 months of reviews. With the pandemic, many clubs haven't had their typical number of reviews. Perhaps because the area is/was limiting them, or because they were popular with business travel or whatever. There's also a minimum # of reviews to be eligible. But, the bigger issue is probably one of perspective. I think people rate clubs relative to other clubs they've been to. That tends to mean most clubs are compared to other local options. Often, that's a good thing since when you're choosing a club it's among those in the same area. However, taken from an international perspective it results in the "Overall" ratings being quite skewed.

As an example, I've never been to the Rhino in Iowa but I find it hard to believe its overall better than Vegas. I think its much more likely that the one in Iowa is just better than its neighbors by a larger margin than Vegas is. I've been to Treasure Club in Greensboro, and even though Diamond Dolls is not the best club nearby I can't imagine any way in which TC is overall better than DD. But again, the other clubs in Greensboro are much worse than TC. So, if your perspective of average clubs is coming from Greensboro you're gonna rate TC somewhat higher than average. But if you're perspective is formed in south Florida, DD isn't that much better than the average club so you'll likely rate it closer to average. Pre-COVID, popular clubs in tourist areas saw the effect multiplied. Tootsies was long rated Top 10 because lots of tourists came to Miami, and it was famous. And many reviewers came from an area where Tootsies would be hands down the greatest club ever, so they rated it highly. Now that it's mostly local reviewers, it's not even on the Top40 anymore. Tijuana clubs are mostly reviewed by americans, so they always score high because they're better than average american clubs. I'm sure if we limited it to local only reviews, some of them would fall out of the Top40

Of course, this is #1 a theory, and #2 even if true wouldn't completely explain the results, but I do think its a big factor.

There also used to be some sort of weighting mechanism that went into calculating the scores. I don't know all the details, but something along the lines of reviewers with either more total or more distinct reviews having their opinions count more. That was removed. I think that increased the location bias effect. When reviewers who had reviewed more varied experience held more sway, the effect was minimized. That's not to say there weren't problems with the other approach though.

It's complicated.

^ I don't think there was a weighted system in place, I think that was just the subject of one of Rick Dugan's rants where he complained that his reviews should be given more credence than others because of his supposed experience as a reviewer.

I'm more interested in https://tuscl.net/top40.php?id=1 . But I wouldn't hop on a plane based on any of the rankings. I might give a no extras club a 9 or 10, but it would have a hard time getting a 5 from others.

“ ^ I don't think there was a weighted system in place, I think that was just the subject of one of Rick Dugan's rants where he complained that his reviews should be given more credence than others because of his supposed experience as a reviewer.” I agree.I don’t believe there was ever a weighted system. I even think Founder said as much one time. But Ricky boy actually believed it. It was just another one of his weird delusions.

Well I’m not the type to jump on a plane to go to any of these places, except maybe TJ. I would however look into clubs on this list if I were already in Tucson, for example. It does make Detroit seem more appealing.
I definitely appreciate having this site available when ever I travel. Most of my hobby activity is on business trips, even in my local metro area.

I’ll take the list filtered by unique reviewers a little more seriously.

I literally was just about to start this discussion topic!

I’ve lived in Tucson most of my life, and all of my hobby life. Curves and Raiders are OK clubs, but personally I regularly drive to Phoenix for Bourbon and HiLiter over both Tucson clubs! I agree the scoring system is highly subjective, although I do see other favorite clubs of mine, like Baby Dolls Dallas, as well as others I’ve visited over the years.

I guess Follies will get dropped of the list in another month two.

There is a bug in the top 40 club code. The scores are not getting updated when new reviews are added. The total number of reviews is also not getting updated.

I would say on certain days Raiders Reef in Tucson can be more friendlier and easier to get a good dancer than the Phx BSC and Hiliter clubs. There’s a certain chill vibe in both towns, but PHX is more of a wanna dance and move on where in Tucson it is more customer service experience. Both have its advantages but I do like the Tucson clubs for variety of friendliness, since I don’t go maybe 2/3 times a year.