reviews_and_ramblings | Rainbow Awards Cover Contest

Rainbow Awards Cover Contest

This is a warning and a request to play fair: I closed the poll for Round 14. For the last two months, and exactly from October 17, an internal fight started during the polls, week after week. I don't know if you realized it, but I think there were at least 2 opposite sides, and they continued to vote to have "their cover" ahead of the other one. Now if the votes were coming for all the covers, maybe more on one cover, a little less on other covers, that would be normal. But ALL the votes for only one cover and then ALL the vote for the other cover? No sorry, I see something that is not right here. Plus sincerely, I don't like that many of the accounts voting were opened right at the moment to vote for a cover and let it go through the elimination poll.

I kindly warned people and introduced the Jury to help me rebalancing the situation and those people got even more angrier... When I investigated on the reason, the only explanation I got was, "we want to support the author we like". Guys, this is a wrong answer for all kinf of reasons, first of all this is a COVER contest, not an AUTHOR contest, and you haven't to vote a cover for the author but for the artist. By the way I have the evidence, no questionable, that at least 4 accounts belonged to the same IP address, many cover didn't pass the rounds for less than 4 votes.

So sorry, but I'm really tired, and almost harrassed, and I decided to give it a stop. I closed the poll, the final 10 covers will be decided on the total amount of votes at yesterday night on ALL the 14 polls plus the votes of the Jury for the last 5 rounds. I will not invalidate votes, not even the ones from the same IP addresses since actually, I cannot determine if they maybe weren't using the same internet point. But please don't consider me a fool and if you are not right on your complaints, DON'T make them.

I ask you to play fair on the next poll: 10 covers, you can vote 3, but please vote the ARTIST, please help me in making this contest a serious thing, otherwise next year I will not host it. I will open the poll on Sunday, meanwhile, if you have question, comment here.

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Oh, Elisa, I am so sorry it happened... :(

I'm really sorry to hear this happened. :(

Elisa, that is so not good. I am so sorry your wonderful idea and hard work has been marked by all that ridiculousness. I hope it doesn't put you off from running the Awards in the future.

How sad, and how ridiculous for people to even bother trying to skew the polls this way. I'm really sorry this happened to you.

I hope you'll run it again next year - I've found it has really focused my mind on what I look for in cover art.

That's one of the reasons why I'm not asking "my" readers to "support" me. I'm on lots of author/publisher lists and every week, at least ten authors run around rallying the troops. It's simply not fair to the others and those with a smaller fanbase. The quality of the writing/craft should come first.

Mi spice che sia successo questo casino con i voti.
Almeno tu capisci cosa è successo...(tracciabilità, ecc, ecc)...io sono nel buio più completo! :)
Quando ci sarà la nuova votazione farò la mia scelta sulla copertina che più mi piace. :)

ciao

Very sorry to hear you had to experience this kind of online behavior, Elisa.

good lord...Elisa, I can't believe people would act so silly. Winning through cheating isn't truly winning at all.

~snuggles~

I'm so sorry that this has happened to you after all the work you've done to put this competition together.

I don't know if you realized it

Nope. Totally in the dark regarding this method of voting. :((

I'm so sorry to hear that this happened - especially given the amount of work you've put into it.

Wow, that's really despicable. I usually think of myself as a pretty cynical person, but it never occurred to me that people would create multiple journals just to stuff the ballot box. :/

And why would anyone vote in a cover contest based on authors?? That's crazy, and completely pointless. [sigh]

Sorry you had to put up with this nonsense. Hopefully the universe will pay these idiots back. A nice flock of pigeons lying in wait somewhere would be appropriate, I think.

Angie

That's lousy. Personally I'd have discounted those duplicated votes from the same IP address, but I'm just coldly rational. It isn't fair to the others who voted and isn't fair to the contest to keep in "error votes". But again, that's just what I'd do, and I'm not the one running the show. I wish you luck in handling it and I hope you can still hold the contest next year.

Elisa, I'm so sorry you had to put up with this. The internet culture just gets weirder and weirder with each passing day.This has been happening on Amazon as well. Apparently, there are firms that a publishing company can hire to plant a huge number of votes on Amazon that support their book and denigrate the new releases coming out from their rivals. It really makes you wonder what's wrong with people sometimes ...

This is a real shame. Many of the covers I voted for were for books I'd never read and I ended up actually buying many books based on this contest. And sadly along the way there were some books that I loved but hated the covers and they didn't get voted for. It's sad when the short-sited single-mindedness of some people ruin the fun for others. I do hope you can run it again next year and I hope that next time it runs smoother!

This is what always happens with polls. People canvas their friends to vote for them - and of course friends do - you can never have a fair competition with a poll, I'm afraid.

Recently there was a competition, over at ARE I believe and the person who won was PAYING for votes by promising short stories in return. She won, and the prize was a monetary one, it was disgusting.

Hugs to you, Elisa. Love your site, and love your contests.

Well what a bloody shame and how stupid of people to let themselves get carried away unfairly like that. And well done for you, for speaking out. I always saw it as a completely different competition from the fiction one, and therefore it doesn't depend on the author.

Please believe that most of us have really enjoyed this, and admired the lovely covers at each stage.
*hugs*

This is such a lame situation. It's so full of logic!fail that it becomes perplexing (voting for covers because of the authors instead of the artists?).

I remember being mesmerized and/or curious about certain books because of their covers.

Obviously, it's a shame that some people have ruined this part of the contest (whether intentional or not), but here's hoping that your new measures work. It would be really bad if we didn't have the cover contest for next year's awards. :-/

I thought some of those covers had an unreasonable number of votes. And like others, I'd have discounted any questionable votes.

Cheating has become epidemic in the US. A few weeks ago a writer "won" the ARe contest by buying votes -- literally sending free stories to anyone who voted for her. And, much to my chagrin, she actually WON that way because there apparently wasn't any rule against buying votes--I suppose ARe's management didn't realize they had to tell people cheating wasn't fair.

It's got to the point where I seldom enter anything online that involves a popular vote. There are some promo hustlers whos ability to coax people into voting--or stuff the ballot box--is far keener than their ability to win on quality alone.

Oh darn, I'm so sorry this happened. I've really been enjoying this poll and it's a shame that it's been tampered with. You're right, it should be votes meant for artists, not authors.

*hugs*

Uugh :-/

And as far as people voting for the authors and not the covers, is there a way to blur out the author names? People could always look up the book by title if they wanted to, but that might help a little.

Glad to see this isn't discouraging you from thinking of doing this next year. I have found many good books from the cover contest because I really can't help byt judge a book by its cover ;)

I'm sorry to read about that. I hope it doesn't discourage you, especially since the problem voters were a minority.

I'm so sorry to hear about this, Elisa. It's like a slap in the face after all your hard work. It's shocking the lengths some people will go to.

Harking back to the few comments made about the recent ARe contest - I entered this and it never even occurred to me that some might cheat (naive I guess) and when I discovered what a certain author was doing I contacted ARe expecting some action of some kind, only to be told they considered it 'acceptable promotion'. I do believe they have changed their minds since though as they did receive a lot of complaints. Just wish they'd seen how unfair it was before they awarded the prize!

I'm not at all surprised you are doing your best to make your contests as fair as possible, Elisa.

Stevie

I'm just baffled as to what these people were thinking (and yes, I've considered that they weren't). It was a very telling statement to say they were supporting their fave author...but that's not what this contest was about--it was a chance for those angels behind the scenes, the COVER ARTISTS to have their moment. I'm a huge fan of the awards you put on, as you know Elisa, and participate in all the voting possible. And it irks me that a few people have tainted this round (and possibly others) for the artists' sakes. I would hate to lose this event! But I don't blame you for feeling as you do, not one bit. ((hugs)) Dev

I would be interested to know if the explanation was forwarded to you with the results found.

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