apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i was just wondering, is there are reason why some of the entries list the results to the poll and others do not? it seems strange that it is not consistent.

A question I'd asked was, can you include pictures from two different rooms? The entry page said "a colorful room" so that's what I sent in, but I am seeing some entries with pics from clearly 2 different rooms.

Brand-Eye,

Once you vote, THEN you see the results, not before OR you can just click on "see results". No hidden tricks here. Try it.

Amber, It is true that our rules said "room" but it was very fuzzy and people sent in pics of one room and two. We realized that it was prohibitive of our time to write everyone back and ask them to resubmit, AND we also felt that people's skill with color would be visible whether it was one room they showed or two. Although we understand the argument that two separate rooms gives people an advantage, we still feel that a strong entry is a strong entry and that the voters are realizing that as well.

In the finals, the finalists will be invited to submit a number of photos from all over their home as well as video, and again, while we feel the surfeit of information will allow people to see more and be FUN, we don't expect it to drastically change the relative merit of each entry.

Actually, like brand-eye, I'm pretty sure that I have seen results for some that I have not voted on and have not clicked "see results" for. It's kind of random -- haven't noticed a pattern to it yet.

the pattern is that on the LA site the survey results are always visible. there is no button to "show results." btw, the font size has also been very small on the LA site for most of today.

I love these contests but I just feel like this one is going on and on and on...there are so many entries, I'm overwhelmed! It's nice that you give everyone a shot at it though.

I really wish there had been some way to see all entries in one stream (as opposed to on all the regional sites, separately). Or have a month of each region (posted on ALL AT sites), then the smack-down.

I fell behind in viewing the non-East Coast entries LONG ago, and the thought of plowing back through them is daunting, to say the least.

I second p(too)'s sentiment. It would be nice to at least have some sort of thumbnail page where we could see all the entries because it is hard to look at the contest page and try to vote on every one. I feel bad because I don't want good entries from sites other than the NY-AT to lose out because they have less votes... but then again, maybe your computer brains have an algorithm to compensate for that.
It also seems that 60 entries from each city-site is A LOT. It's hard to keep them straight! at least we'll be voting again on the finalists?

i've just kind of given up. i really enjoy seeing the spaces but it's just too much.

Wow, I applaud your industriousness, but I think 10 from each site would have been more than enough. I am also overwhelmed by all the entries.

I'm not sure how you all managed to overwelm yourselves by looking at pictures.

I just think judging is going to be skewed because people posted earlier will just have more votes

The "earlier entries will have gotten more votes" argument comes up every single contest.

I did a spreadsheet of votes on the last Smallest, Coolest, and the effect of earlier vs. later posting on number of votes was small to non-existent. That one also had 60 entries on the NY site, so unless looking at color is especially wearing, there's no reason to expect later entries to receive substantially fewer votes than earlier ones.

A spreadsheet of all the votes? Is that for real?

There are way, way too many entries. Fall Colors Contest fatigue.

Voting on these things stresses me out

I've always wondered if I should be grading on a curve or rating each apartment independently.

That is, should I hold my self to 10 (now 12) insta-finalist votes? or give all the apartments I really like top votes?

This would be an easier dilemma to resolve if I could remember which entries I've voted on and how I've voted for longer than 36 hours.

is it possible that people are cheating by painting their apartments wild colors and buying lots of strange stuff? also, i don't like photos of dogs, i'm a cat person. is it right to disqualify them because of the pets? and finally, i don't trust the voting system, can you give the cash prize to a commentor instead?

OMG, democracy is crazy!

Reminder--
You can vote through the 31st on the entries.
You can use the contest page to see all the entries in one place.
Hold on there, weary ones. And try to remember what you've already voted for!

Count me in as contest weary. After trying to keep up early on, after a while I couldn't, so I'm hoping to go through entries on the contest page before the deadline, but it is kind of overwhelming. Also, truth be told, I also got weary of over the top entries that I just didn't enjoy and there just seemed to be too many of them. This hasn't happened in the Smallest, Coolest contest before for me, when I'm hankering to see them all and click as soon as the new ones arrive. I can't remember if I got contest weary during the Color contest last year. Has there been a change in blog clientele that has resulted in different types of entries? Is AT getting way more press about the Color contest?

OK, maybe my last comments were too harsh. I just went to the Color contest page and randomly clicked through a few and they were all quite nice. It might be the nature of the Color contest that too much color just burns your eyeballs out and one grows weary and needs to do something else.

Eh -- If people are going to make claims that can be confirmed or denied by some simple number-crunching, why not crunch the numbers?

Clearly, I had more time on my hands than I do now, possibly more time than is healthy. Well, okay, definitely more time than is healthy, as I also counted how many entrants had those bent plywood Eames side chairs (not distinguishing between the occasional chair and dining chair models, as you can't always tell, with photo angles).

I'm trying to vote but am having issues on the contest page. In some cases (#15 Becca, #17 Elizabeth, for example) there are no options available for me to make a selection. Other times I get "User doesn't support survey cookies 'survey_check1160664813-20196' at Bitter/SurveyCookie.pm line 32" when I enter the code to vote. Help!

Gasp...I've also fallen way behind in looking at all the entries, and apologize to contestants from non-NYC that at some point I had to stop checking out every AT site. Simply not enough hours in a day.

I'm supposed to be doing the CURE too, and have confessed on that thread that I'm behind schedule, so I shouldn't even be here playing, visiting and posting on the regular AT thread.

But it's awfully hard to resist dropping in every once in awhile. :)

Hmmmm...this is very strange...I saw this posting in the Fall Colors Contest page and made a comment to it and all of a sudden it disappeared (both the posting and my comment).

Anyway, here are my questions again...
How do you take into consideration those entries that have been up for weeks before the more recent entries? The older ones seem to have more total votes...do you look at percentages rather than actual numbers?
Also, I notice that some entrants seem to have blogs or websites from where they solicit votes from their communities...thus getting a HUGE amount of total votes. So, you don't need color skill to become a finalist, you just need to have many friends? Do you take this into consideration when coming up with the 12 finalists?

count me in the "unable to keep up" category. that, coupled with the same issue that Maggieinthewood has had (a strange error message) AND a glitch (?) where rooms I've previously voted on suddenly giving me the option to vote again...whew!

that said, i think it's a great contest, just wish it was easier to keep up with.

and wende, just how many entrants had those bent plywood eames side chairs anyways? you are a woman after my own heart!

the drama and over-concern from obsessive AT'ers is really turning me off this site. i may soon stop visiting due to the negativity surrounding the color contest. this used to be fun, but now it's just hurtful and degrading.

look through the comments on the finalists pages if you don't know what i am talking about.