Sep 9

Written by:
2010/09/09 07:58 AM 

As I read through the blogosphere I see a few posts complaining and ranting about the flawed processes of the SA Blog Awards. Some have legitimate concerns, while others are just ranting because they never made it to the second round.

Before we go any further, let me assure you that this is not a rant, but more of a concerning question.

I was nominated and was one of the top 10 in my category. Resulting in me going forward to the next round. So a big thank you to all you guys and gals who voted for me. Keep it up. I do want to win. Who wouldn’t? It’s just a nice feather in your cap.

Even if I don’t win, it’s reward enough to see readers nominate and vote for me. Telling me I must be doing something right here.

SA Blog Awards Process

So, back to the SA blog awards process. It is now in its second stage. The Voting stage. This is where you and I vote for the best blog in each category. Simple enough right.

But no, I did not read the rules properly. Only just the other day did I fully grasp what was said.

“The vote phase is now open and you can vote every 24hrs”.

Note, and to my surprise I realised that you can vote over and over again for the time of the voting stage, 15 odd days, over and over again.

This has some serious repercussions and in my opinion is seriously flawed.

It’s not the norm

I posted a post and promoted my plea for votes on my blog and on twitter, assuming that the voting process is as any voting process. 1 man/woman 1 vote. This is the norm in any democratic society is it not?

Governments have gone to great lengths to ensure that there is no corruption and no fraud in their voting process. Great effort has been taken in ensuring that one person can only vote once.

So why did SA Blog Awards bring in this process that you can vote multiple times. I assumed, as did many of my readers that this was the case, 1 man 1 vote.

Even normal average polling web application don’t allow you to vote more than once. Yes you can bypass the trivial checks and balances, but what's the point.

The strange thing is that the nomination process was very different. If you nominated more than once, then only one nomination would count/ Each nomination would overwrite the last.

So why the change in the voting process?

Let your yay be your yay and your nay be your nay. Otherwise we will sound like blabbering donkeys with mad cow disease. Yay yay yay yay yay yay …

Serious repercussions

The repercussions are enormous. Let’s look at a few examples.

I can go out and get 10 free email addresses. then start voting for myself. That is once every 15 days which equates to 150 votes. Not bad.

Then I can get some family members to do the same. Lets say I can convince 10 members of my family to do the same. That's 1500 votes, plus my 150. Not bad

Now I convince a few of my readers to do the same. Lets assume I can get 20 readers to do the same. That’s another 3000 votes.

All of a sudden I am looking pretty good. I have amassed a whopping 4650 votes. When in fact it should be only 30, at most counting unique email addresses 310 votes. A big difference isn't it?

Another example. Two blogs have similar readership. Blog A has 100 readers, blog B has 120 readers. If every reader votes once one would assume that blog B would win. But if Blog A got a few of their readers to vote more than once. They could well overtake Blog B. But is this a true reflection of the voting public?

So the question is, can we trust the results as a true reflection of the best blogs in SA?

Don’t get me wrong, I would like to win. I would like you to vote for me every day. Purely because the rules allow it. But if I win, can I honestly say I was the best.

It’s not too late for a remedy

That's right, the situation can be redeemed. It’s a simple SQL query. Assuming that SA Blog Awards is recording our votes in a database.

All that needs to be done is to query the database using the Distinct modifier. This will return only the unique votes, which in my opinion is what really counts.

So my plea to the guys at SA Blog Awards is to make this years awards more authentic and more credible. Count only the distinct unique votes, lets get a true reflection of the best blogs. Hey it might mean that I might not win. Then so be it.

Conclusion

Am I correct in assuming that this process is flawed. What are your thoughts? I would love to know?

If you think I’m wrong, then put me right. Let me know your thoughts.

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