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It's hard to overstate how unimportant this is.

A non-binding online poll to help pick who will be on the cover of a dying news magazine. Notable recent winners include Vladimir Putin and, uh, "you" as well as "A Protestor".



| Notable previous winners include Vladimir Putin and, uh, "you" and "A Protestor".

Don't forget Hitler!


And Stalin, twice.

And G.Bush Jr, twice.

And Obama, twice.

(In fact, you'd be pressed to fill more than one hand counting the pleasant people on the list)

They claim it's the "most influential person, for better or worse", but don't admit that's as long as the person did not really upset the status quo.

The idea that Snowden might be Time POY is laughable. The "trolls" know this, which is why they make a mockery of the poll each year.


Actually I think there's a chance they do pick Snowden, but I don't care because it's really of very little consequence. I'm sure Time cares much more about selling magazines than maintaining the political status quo.


The audience of the (dying) magazine industry doesn't come close to the audience of snowden's message. your comment kind of proves that snowden doesn't have a chance, because choosing him won't increase sales.


I think there's actually a very good chance. These are journalists doing the picking after all although their selection will likely have pretty much zero to do with the results of an Internet poll. (The chances of it being Miley Cyrus on the other hand are about as close to zero as you can get.)


Remember how he wanted the story not to be about him?


Obamba...isn't he that guy that won the Nobel Peace Prize?


Yes, and few can really explain why...


He started less wars than average US president :)


The poll really just mocks itself.


Stalin and Hitler didn't upset the status quo?


Since then they've shied away from selecting "controversial" figures. Hence why bin Laden didn't get it in 2001, for example.


Hitler probably impacted the world more than all of the above combined.


Depends on what you mean by "impact", as Stalin and Mao were both responsible for more famine, torture, and death than even Hitler. On the other hand Hitler's "impact" was probably more relevant to Time's audience (in the USA and Great Britain).


Don't forget, Awesome Award based on internet votes will be spammed all over Wikipedia, providing free advertising that points to Time Magazine, and wikipedia editors believe any award is some authoritative measure of success.

In a way, hacker news could make up an award based on internet votes and vote Miley Cyrus as the Greatest Creative Mind of the last 100 years. Wikipedia editors will be all over that.


Unimportant, but revealing.




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