OK all, I am posting this because I have been getting A LOT of friends, fans etc asking what happened to my picture in the contest.
It appears that some people who have voted for me were using a spamming style program that allowed them to post rapidly and without anything in the comment box. These people did this on their own, and did so even though the rules specifically stated that no fake accounts or comment bomb programs were allowed to be used. For this reason, PlzNoExcuses removed my picture from the contest. She is totaly besides herself and hated to do that. And if she was able to get a hold of me during the day, I would have withdrawn myself from it on my own.
I am one who does not believe in cheating and this was all supposed to be fun. I hate that this happened. Not for me, but for all of my legitimate friends who spent hours typing in comment after comment. YOU ALL ROCK!
My suggestion for anyone who runs a contest on CT, there are only 2 fair ways to do so.
1) Run a contest where only photo ratings count as votes. The positives to this is that Every individual CT account only gets 1 vote (you can only rate a photo once). The negative to this is that the person running the contest does not get much for doing so. When running a comment bomb contest, the person who runs it goes up about 3 or 4 levels in a week. But a rating only contest does not give them that many points.
- OR -
2) Run the contest as all comments and rates = 1 vote. No other restrictions. KNOW UPFRONT, that YES, there are those out there with programs to allow them to bomb faster, and there are those with fake accounts specifically for this purpose. But as long as everyone knows this upfront there should be no hurt feelings. Is it fair? Well, YES... everyone is playing by the same rules. This way there is no judgement call on whether or not a vote should count. A comment is a comment.
Trying to run a contest any other way than the above 2 mentioned options leaves the person running it in a position that they have to make a hard call on if some voters are breaking the rules or not... and any time you put yourself into a position where you have to make a judgement call, you will end up hurting someones feelings along the way... and NONE OF US WANT THAT.
This is ALL supposed to be fun. It is a game designed to help the person running the contest to level faster.
Frankly EVERY SINGLE PERSON in this contest ROCKS. MANY of them are personal friends of mine and I HOPE that the competition felt friendly for everyone. THAT is how it is supposed to be.
In short I feel bad for those friends of mine that had spent hours bombing my picture legitimately. They are the ones that lost out, and for that I feel bad. For any of them, If I have not already sent you a CT gift... PLEASE let me know.
For those that feel compelled to use spamming bots and fake accounts... PLEASE read the rules to contests. You MIGHT be voting for someone with the best of intentions, BUT if you are going against the rules of the contest then you are the problem, you are not helping.
PLEASE EVERY FRIEND that had voted for me, stop by and vote in the contest and show PlzNoExcuses some love. She is a great person and was just trying to have some fun.
Those of us who have been on CT since its inception have run a contest or two that had its hiccups. Many of us learn from this and continue to hold contests with the experience we learned. Others get frustrated when something like this happens and they never run another contest. PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN WITH HER. SHE ROCKS AND DESERVES ALL THE CHERRY LOVE THAT WE KNOW HOW TO GIVE!
