I don't think it's ever going to be a genuine popularity contest, since the offsite teams' strategies generally require picking off the most popular members early in the game. It's probably fun to play if you're active in one (or more
watch our for that double-dealin' ) of the teams, but it really has become pretty dull to watch. And to be honest, a straight (non-team) popularity contest probably wouldn't be much more interesting (I think I just voted in one at H!O, and I don't even care about the results). The best part of the game early on (when it did involve more straight popularity voting and less team strategy) was always the high volume of noise, spamming, and general silliness.
OK, I did get involved in a team once or twice in the past, but that was really only because I liked the person who invited me. Team-based voting strategy games aren't the kind of thing that I'd be inclined to do on my own.The arbitrary rule-changes make it much more interesting, and the truth is that I find it very entertaining to see the best-laid plans of team-strategists get thown completeley overboard on occasion - much more than watching a plan that I'm not involved in work smoothly all the way to a successful conclusion. That's one of the reasons why I came to appreciate SB's completely over-the-top sadism when he ran the game at JPM.
If madness made us strong, we would all be invincible.