Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

bilgi yarÄ±ÅŸmasÄ± — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:10:17 -0000

thanks.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Adam Hirsch — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:49:17 -0000

There were no eliminations. Only the double IP address votes from the "gamer" were discounted.

Voting has begun already on the final round: http://mashable.com/2007/12...

Please vote!

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

LancesMom — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:38:08 -0000

OH an dnow I read that their where some eliminations and glocals is advancing??? Whi is in the final round and when is it going to start! Will you clear it for all IP addresses that voted before will be able to vote again in the final. Or do I have to rally more troops??

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

LancesMom — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:34:15 -0000

If I understand this right the top three that won in the last round are CafeMom, College tonight, and Open Food Source. When does this final round of voting for these three sites begin?

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

midori miller — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:36:25 -0000

Hi Adam-am trying to figure out where we are supposed to vote since I do not see Cre8buzz on the list.....please advise as to where and what catagory.....Thank you!

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Adam Hirsch — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:26:34 -0000

As I said in an e-mail to Jason, no one is accusing CollegeTonight or OpenSourceFoods. The "gamed" votes were removed and the votes were totalled by Vizu. This was a close race...

Anyone reading this, please realize we do not put a single ounce of blame or accusation on College Tonight or OpenSourceFoods.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Jason Schutzbank — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:08:43 -0000

Adam,

Just like Cre8buzz and YoYoGames, we are saddened that this accusation of "gaming" is directed towards us and that we may in turn be penalized. We mobilized our base all weekend to try and trump the %'s of the leading pack and we are humbled by the support of our users and friends. Whatever "gaming" took place was certainly not to our knowing and we are extremely disappointed that a few over-zealous or deceptive individuals turned this great opportunity into a negative experience for us all. Obviously, double-votes shouldn't count (though I'm not sure how one would vote twice from the same IP), but beyond that, we used our vast network (no pun intended) to raise awareness of the contest.

Please advise if there is some assistance we can offer in legitimizing the process. You may call or email me at any time.

Thank you,

Jason Schutzbank
EVP & CTO
College Tonight, Inc.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Oded Ofek — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:02:37 -0000

Just saw the news that glocals.com is advancing to the finals, and want to make sure this is correct.

Is this 100% sure Adam? glocals.com is in the finals?

If yes, when is the vote?

Thanks alot

Oded

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Adam Hirsch — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:48:36 -0000

UPDATE: Through the Triple Check and the time difference, the Double IPs and Gaming that occurred for CollegeTonight & OpenSourceFood, which all came from othe same IP address has been discounted. Not ALL votes, just the duplicate address. Therefore, Glocals will be advancing.

Thanks to Vizu for running the thorough searches for us in their systems and correcting the issue.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Adam Hirsch — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:09:50 -0000

Sorry CSamarin, the votes were all tabulated in the end removing any "fradulent" votes. All results have been tallied and "Double IP Votes" were removed from the final tally.Vizu did a great job of analyzing the votes and tabulated everything properly and accordingly.

As for Vizu, they accidentally set the polls to close at 11:59 pm and not am, therefore, you might see some discrepancies from there. I assure you the correct numbers are pulled and they are doing a final triple check as I write this with all of your concerns.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

CSamarin — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:01:52 -0000

I kind of wish some of my members would have been "fraudulent" during the nomination period to get me a free ride to the final round. Squeaky wheel gets the oil?

Oh well...good luck to the sites moving on!

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:48:30 -0000

It isn't that this "seems" unkosher. It was gamed badly. 17,630 votes. Even GloCals.com was a "victim" in the beginning. It's very apparent that this fact can be proven by many people. That includes the web administrators of Vizu.com.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Oded Ofek — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:24:44 -0000

Congrats to the winners.

For a while there, it looked like glocals.com was going to make it to the finals, but in the end, we did not make it in.

As is the case with almost any vote/election, there will always be things that seem to be 'not kosher' to some people.
Regardless of whether or not these perceptions are correct, the results are what they are, and it does not look like they will change.

Thanks alot to all of our members who took the time to vote for us and show their support, and thanks to Mashable for organizing this competition and providing a platform where Niche social communities can strut their stuff (and where, for once, we did not have to read about what Facebook did today)

Congrats to the winners who made it into the finals, and good luck.

Oded - glocals.com

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:44:43 -0000

I hope you realize when this poll is over that it is not valid. Maybe when you see Vizu.com at the Open Web Awards they can explain how they received so much funding for a completely unsecured polling application. This is two strikes on the integrity of this whole awards process. YoYo Games and Cre8Buzz are lucky not to be a part of the poll in this round. Now you've guranteed two sites to the next round and they don't have to be a part of this mess.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

John — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:02:18 -0000

Adam,

You listen to your readers and that's great. Yet on this case - by going 180 degrees on your original stance and by letting the 2 said sites back into the finals - I think you gave in to the public pressure. As a result, you risk having a much bigger credebility issue on your hands when the vote moves to the finals.

I'm NOT saying you should re-re-change your mind. However, I think that to minimise a credebility hurt to the awards, you'll need to explaion the rationale for your new decision very well and very clearly to the vote participants during the finals.

If you don't manage explaining your decision in the right way, people won't understand what these 2 sites are doing in the finals. In this case most folks may just pick-up on 'easy' negative sound bites = there was some rigging in the contest, and sites that whined to you about it were excused.

So my advice to you: get the rationale for your re-decision water tight, and make it public asap.

Good luck, and thanks for doing the contest,

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Quirkee James — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:40:11 -0000

Well done, Adam. Thank you for giving the two sites the opportunity to compete again.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

BrandMan211 — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:38:06 -0000

Thank you Adam, at this point you did in fact take responsibility for your actions. I am very grateful.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Adam Hirsch — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:54:55 -0000

Midori, the 2nd and final round of voting begins Monday morning. That's when you'll be able to vote.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

midori miller — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 13:53:20 -0000

Adam-how do we vote if they are not on the list?

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

midori miller — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:49:17 -0000

Now that is good news...

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Adam Hirsch — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:42:57 -0000

Hello Everybody. Good news regarding YoYo Games and Cre8Buzz nominations in the Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks Category...there were multiple nominations coming from the same IP addresses, which led to me taking those two sites out of the running, in addition to other factors. However, we spoke to the companies and confirmed that this was just a few overzealous users and not the companies themselves. Therefore, both Cre8buzz and YoYoGames are being allowed to proceed to the next round.

Mashable, YoYoGames and Cre8Buzz all thank everyone who showed such strong emotions during this ordeal. Good luck to all the nominees!

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

midori miller — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:12:34 -0000

I don't believe for a minute this is immature at all. I too am quite disappointed..not #$&^*ing but rather concerned since I just joined Mashable in January. When I saw there was a contest and one of my social networks that I love was nominated... you bet I voted and so did my husband and brother. Why??? we are all on cre8buzz. How bad is it for this to be made a public conversation? Accusations of gaming the system is very strong. In my household alone we have 2 members on almost all the same networks. Does that make us game any system? So if you were to have a family of seven and each member voted does that make it gaming the system? Cre8buzz and the community is a great place, I know you are not questioning that but my concern is to be vocal..."RECEIVE WORD!" now to me that is funny. I can start any type of rumor...we all can...I hope you are basing this strong allegation on more than just RECIEVING WORD! As far as YoYogames never have been there but I will check it out...maybe I'll pull my membership here...maybe I won't but you can bet...I won't be taking the contests held on Mashable very serious. I wish you all the very best!

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Mark Spellman — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 11:01:38 -0000

Let's put this all behind us. Some are acting like very immature. This is a contest, not a government election. This is the first year, not the 10th year.

In fact YoYoGames ands Cre8buzz are actually detering good pr for the other candidates. They are making these other 10 great comanpies look bad to an extent. There are many good VCs and Angel Investors on this site and this little stir up doesn't look positive for anyone.

Agreed, everyone should put this behind all as everyone's image seems to be hurt by this some.

Mark

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

Office Goddess — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:54:08 -0000

I think the best lesson to be learned here is to make more concrete rules for the next contest and, if multiple votes come from the same IP address, to use email addresses to confirm the legitimacy of the votes. I would suggest requesting a confirmation from the multiple email addresses registered with the same IP address - I believe that few (if any) people who create a new email address for the sole purpose of casting votes would take the time to actually CHECK the email at a future time for a confirmation email...

That being said, I am a recent addition to the Cre8Buzz site and did not have an opportunity to vote for the nominations. I hope that the understanding and tolerance that the Cre8Buzz team shoed continutes in the future.

Re: Open Web Awards – Vote for Your Favorite Niche Social Network

James — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 07:22:25 -0000

I'd just like to say that I have had personal contact from Adam and I believe this entire episode was an honest mistake.

I'd like to thank the whole YoYo Games community, and especially the GMC, for their nominations and support. They've showed their true colours as an active and passionate community.

YoYoGames, Mashable and, I'm sure, cre8buzz, are great sites and there's no reason we shouldn't have the friendliest of relationships. Let's move on and put this behind us.

Good luck to all the other contestants.