The Home Stretch - Current Issues

This will continue on from the last post, on which comments have now been closed.

14:31, London time: There's been quite a bit of feedback by e-mail and some on the posts on this site and on mine. Plus on your sites of course. The decision will be announced at 20:00 this evening, London time because I'd like to maximize the feedback before acting so precipitately.

11:04, London time: This is a working day for some and a holiday for others and therefore the communication lines are a little slow.

I have to announce that I have sought the advice of all on my auto e-mail list connected with these awards about a decision to be announced around lunchtime today, London time.

If you did not receive an e-mail, then it is because I've been slack and haven't updated my auto-roll, e.g. with Lord Nazh. His e-mail to me is somewhere in the 865 since the start of these awards. I'll look for it soon. Also, many don't have accessible e-mails. As it is only advice at this stage and I have little time on a working day, let it be so for now.

The two issues are:

1] whether to expel UK News & Politics from the Awards categories he is contesting;

2] whether I myself should withdraw on the same grounds.

In order to decide this, cool heads must prevail and all the things written taken into consideration. No decision will be taken until much more feedback is in. I plan an announcement for 15:00, London time.

Feedback is open to all and UKN&P was the first informed this on his site. His feedback is most welcome. Documentary evidence is not the issue here. The issue is how the majority see the matter, given the events of the past few days and especially the events overnight. I'm quite biased myself now and so it will be based only on your advice.

08:52, London time: I've just been around the categories and put my votes in and the big news this Monday morning is the staggering comeback of UK News & Politics, one of the smaller bloggers with no more than 100 visitors a day to his site*.

When I last saw the score in Category 10 about midnight, the results were:

Crushed by Ingsoc 88

Sicily Scene 84

UK News & Politics 70

with 613 votes cast.

Now, this morning, there's been a huge surge in votes and the results are:

Crushed by Ingsoc 101

Sicily Scene 109

UK News & Politics 101

with 753 votes cast.

That's a 30 vote increase in a few hours, whilst he scored 70 for the 4 days up to that point! Congratulations, UK News and Politics, for your amazing comeback in Category 10, as well as in 6, 12 and in the Britblog section!

For a little blogger, you have an amazing amount of readers who don't visit your site* who are voting for you.

08:02, London time: Help!!! I have tried three times to put these banners into the sidebar but have failed miserably. They've skewed [popular, that word] all over the place. Admins please do it for us!

07:29, London time, Monday, June 11th: Calum Carr has withdrawn from the Awards for this reason:

There have been allegations of vote skewing against some blogs - not mine I hasten to add - about which James Higham has talked in various places. In addition, it appears that action has been taken against one blog, at least: the leading blog (in category 10) after 3 days has not increased its vote in the last 2 days. The overall vote total and my blog's vote have increased hugely in the last couple of days.

I have replied, at Calum's site:

This is your right, Calum but the imputation of foul play is wrong. Yesterday, and these gentlemen will confirm it, I wrote to Ian Grey and Thunderdragon on two topics:

1] whether it was possible that someone could hack into the awards;

2] I mentioned that UKN&P has stopped polling.

These concerned me greatly because there were implications for the Awards, which Calum has now assumed, despite the disclaimer exonerating me personally.

A visit to UKN&P would answer the 2nd question:

"Blogpower Awards- Vote Early and Often!!

I will be out of town from Sat 9 June until Wed 12 June and will be writing posts if (hopefully when) I have any free time. We are still doing well in the Blogpower Awards but need your votes to pull ahead of the current leaders! Thanks for all your support and keep voting"

Now, here's Ian's reply to me, which answers the 1st and I've written to him, asking if he'd mind me disclosing part of a private e-mail:

"It seems unlikely that the logs are accessible, as they aren't available to poll set-upperers. Seeing as they do a paid service as well, it is in their interests to keep it secure."

That's the issue of "poll fixing". Therefore, the only problem is in the multiple voting. I stated on my site that:

"You see, behind the scenes I'm playing hardball right now and it's only fair they get their shot later. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. If they don't do it, I'll tell you about it anyway."

So now it's time to tell you. There are three people close to me [one female, two male] who visit my site regularly. There are hundreds who don't. I haven't told the hundreds at all.

I think it's fair enough for regular readers, and this can be seen from Sitemeter, to vote in this poll. I hve three. How these personal friends are doing this is their affair but it's allowed me to stop voting for myself because it was uncomfortable.

They also know I'm hitting Categories 6, 10 and 12 and voting when I can to even up the balance. This is only logical. They're friends. We talk. I talk ad nauseam about the awards. They make their decisions. They're big boys and girls 35 to 47 years of age. Whether others are doing this, I don't know. How could I know?

Then UKN&P simply stopped polling.

This worried me. I was seriously thinking this morning of shoving my own vote his way and still might do that but that would have skewed the result. I was so worried about him yesterday that I went to his site and this is what I left in his comments:

1 Comment - Show Original Post

james higham said...

No, you can vote more often than that. We dropped the notice about once a day when we discovered that the system allows votes sooner than that - it's working on IP addresses.

Please don't stop voting for UK News and Politics.

10 June 2007 04:20

This is what everyone has been saying all along - they want a balanced result. I invite any person I've e-mailed to come forward and show where I have urged them not to vote for a specific person. I certainly had discussions with about 12 people about a political party and I named that party openly. They're welcome to reveal what I wrote to them, for all to see.

Calum has come to a conclusion based on what he sees overall and that's sad but fine. I hope that this now has cleared the air a little.

Now to me, myself, personally, in the polls. I'm doing well and yet I'm running the show. This is highly uncomfortable. Do I want you to stop voting for me? To "even things up"? That's your decision but of course I'd like you to keep voting. As Mr Eugenides said:

"I'd like to win an award, but of more interest is to see what other people think."

One nominee running against me in Wordsmith has alleged, half-jokingly, "a fix". I've been to his site and showed him how to maximize his vote. I voted for him yesterday - twice. I voted twice for Calum too.

On Saturday, I went through on one of my votes, put up my five categories on the computer, checked the boxes of everyone except me and voted, just for the hell of it. I've especially been voting for one person, not me, in the Services to Blogging section. I'd like to think his vote has increased that little bit, due to me.

One lady running against me e-mailed me and I showed her how to strategize, how to use her support to maximize their votes, how to vote within the context of what the machine allows. She wrote back asking why I was telling her these things and was it ethical?

Of course it's ethical to work within the rules to maximize your vote, s long as you don't bring in your workplace or political organization to help you. All of us could do this if we wished. Voting for this person or that is the fun of the event in my eyes but never forget:

1] we all have one vote only, every so often, for 200 people at a time if we so wish;

2] the greater the pool of overall votes, the less chance any one person has of skewing the result.

That's why I voted for seven or eight candidates in every section yesterday and I think many others were voting for multiple candidates too.

Much more serious is the charge that the admin running the show has urged people not to vote for someone. Look through my editorials here and come to your own conclusions on that.

One nominee, at the very start, also claimed that Blogpower was urging everyone to vote Blogpower. Please give your comments on this. For me to say that this is utterly groundless would not carry as much weight as if you commented.

Your comments on all matters are most welcome.