Some very high profile names have been stripped out of the forthcoming DJ Magazine Top 100 DJs Poll and ‘named and shamed’ in the magazine itself.

Among the casualties are last year’s No.4 Christopher Lawrence and No.5 DJ Dan. 2006 high climbers the Flash Brothers have also been accused of vote rigging, along with a couple of randoms who didn’t make a very good job of buying their way into thousands of email votes.

All the international names accused have blamed overenthusiastic friends or marketing managers (Lawrence and Dan share the same one, or rather did - he’s hastily been given the elbow by both as part of their lawyers damage limitation strategy).

But with so many controversial entries in last year’s poll, you have to wonder if only these alleged few DJs were cheating this time around… or if they are just the only ones who got caught?

If cheaters have still managed to slip through the net (and one comment posted by a self-proclaimed ‘hacker’ on DJmag.com today seems to reveal how it could be done without trace), then the results are still going to deeply divide opinion. And what of the clubbers who legitimately did vote for the likes of the Flash Bros and co., shouldn’t their votes be included in the final results?

I worked at DJmag on the last 6 polls and I can tell you it

was becoming increasingly difficult to police. With so much riding on the results in terms of a DJs worldwide bookings, plus so many obsessive fans voting from far away territories the results get wilder every year.

The team at the mag are passionate about the results being a 100% public contest - that’s it’s biggest strength and weakness. Previously the cheat votes have simply been stripped out and the many DJs in question then naturally drop down the rankings. Despite this process, people still accused some of the more surprising high flyers of serious cheating, but noone ever directly pointed the finger.

All credit to DJmag for taking a stand - it had to be done, but is it enough and can kicking out a few entries make the whole poll more accurate? We await the results in a fortnight with baited breath…

My personal advice to calm this whole madness down - and stop DJs suffering the annual assault on their careers/nerves - is for promoters, particularly those in younger clubbing markets like Asia and Eastern Europe to stop deciding booking based solely on Top 100 rank. Surely in this interactive internet age they can assess who will draw a big local crowd in other ways?

Then the Top 100 can get back to what it once was - a nice coffee table list of the most popular DJs of the year, and a massive excuse for a big awards party.