Glossary of TopX words

The basics

List: a set of things your group wants to rank or rate, in one of twelve categories such as movies, wines, restaurants or books.

Item: one thing on a list, for example one film.

Ballot: your own ranking or scores for the items of a list. Your ballot saves by itself.

Owner: a person who looks after a list. Owners edit the list, invite people, and always see every ballot.

Participant: a person on a list who votes. Participants see their own ballot and the group result, and everyone's ballots only when an owner turns on "Show everyone's ballots".

AI assistant: an assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT or Codex that you connect to your account to read and change your lists for you.

Voting

Ranking: a list where you put the items in one order, best first. You do this on the Ladder.

Point scale: a list where you give each item a score on a scale instead of putting items in order.

Dimension: one aspect you score on a point-scale list, for example aroma or taste. A dimension can count more than the others. A list without dimensions has one, "Overall".

To place: the area for items you haven't placed on the Ladder yet.

Ranked: the items you have put in order.

Rank later: the tray for items you know but haven't decided where to put. They still count as open.

Don't know it: the tray for items you haven't seen, read or tried. They don't count against the item.

Results

Group result: the order of the items when all ballots are counted together.

Counting method: the way ballots are counted into the group result. You can compare three on the Scoreboard:

• Points per place: each ballot gives points by place, first place the most, and the points add up.
• Simple order: each ballot counts in its plain order, with the same step between every two places.
• Top-weighted: the top of each ballot counts much more than the rest.

Ladder: your ballot on a ranking list, with one ticket per item, best at the top.

Scoreboard: the table of items in group order with the group result and the counting methods side by side.

History: the list as it was after earlier changes. It is available when the list has live updates turned on.

Live updates: with this switch on, open pages refresh when someone saves a ballot, and the list has history and notifications. It is called "Live updates, history and notifications" in the list settings.

Time

Reminder: an email from an owner to a member whose turn it still is. An owner can send one per member and list every 24 hours, and only on lists with live updates on.

Decide-by date: the optional day the group wants a result. The Home page reminds owners to nudge people when it is close.