Our last Fall Colors Contest submissions go up tomorrow. We run four today and three tomorrow, making 60 total. BE SURE TO VOTE! We deeply apologize to anyone who didn't get posted! While many were simply not as strong an entry as others, many suffered from bad pictures. We want to help correct this, so we're going to be putting together a post on how to take WINNING pictures of your own home for future use.
Introducing The ColorVault! Inspired by this year's contest we are offering a new free service to our readers: The ColorVault - a way to always remember the colors you painted your home. Simply email us a picture of your room with your name & email and the following:
I was going to vote on a bunch of the entries over the weekend and I kept getting error messages that contained the word "bitter." I'm not bitter about not being able to vote, but I read some posts last week that others were having the same problem. I guess I'm not going to vote - the window of opportunity has closed.
Pixie, wierd! Mark - our tech guru - goes by the name online of "bitterpill" so it may be some wierd message popping up using his name.... I'll look into it. voting is def not closed.
I keep getting an error saying I don't accept cookies. I checked my cookie settings, and everything looks OK. I just upgraded to Firefox 2.0, so maybe that's it?
Hmmm...I was trying to vote at home, where I use Firefox, as well.
I just tried voting for one entry that I got the error message on at home, and it's not giving me that message, so the vote must be recorded.
Firefox must be the problem!
On that last comment, I was not using Firefox just now, but Internet Explorer.
this sounds like a great idea. will we be able to see other people's photos and copy their colors, down to the paint brand/ color?
Goober, exactly, but we'll keep identities private.
On the browser problems, to make a fix I need to know exact error messages or an exact situtation. So many things can throw computers off and I'm not having any trouble on mine....
I get this one on Firefox (but only sometimes...can't figure out the pattern)
User doesn't support survey cookies 'survey_check1162222155-23999' at Bitter/SurveyCookie.pm line 32.
I also only sometimes got the message on Firefox. I think I sent the exact message to the AT mailbox on Saturday.
Wow. This is a smart and very generous thing to offer your readers. Thanks! You have made your deposit into the good kharma vault.
I just received this one for entry 54:
User doesn't support survey cookies 'survey_check1162222146-23970' at Bitter/SurveyCookie.pm line 32.
However, I had no problem with entry 55. This has been going on for two days. I can vote for some but then the next one won't let me.
I am a little bitter that my entry wasn't posted. I never participate in such contests but was pretty excited about this one. I went through about 200 hundred pictures that I took specifically for this contest to pick just the right two. I didn't really care for the prize as I just wanted some feedback on the house I've spent the last 2 years re-doing from top to bottom. I've come to value the AT reader's feedback.
I just wish there was a forewarning at the begining of the contest that entry wasn't guaranteed. I wouldn't have been in such anticipation and ultimate upset if I had known that from the get-go.
But that's OK - I'll just sit here and pout.
I did however get some inspiration from other entries, so great contest anyway!
I'm at home on Firefox and I was zipping along through several entries and my votes were all being accepted--including for entries where I was getting error messages the other day--when suddenly I got "the message" of error and doom:
User doesn't support survey cookies 'survey_check1160751307-32650' at Bitter/SurveyCookie.pm line 32.
I'm not sure if these same thoughts have been posted elsewhere, but I think it's a good thing there is screening on the Fall Colors contest, and in fact there needs to be even more.
I tried going through all the NY entries to vote yesterday and the volume is really too much, plus I was surprised by how few of them even merited an "in contention." Some were attractive spaces, but simply painting a wall doesn't qualify as great use of color in my book, and neutrals really shouldn't be allowed to count.
In the future I think the rules need to be made clearer and entries with minimal color usage should not be posted. If everyone knows from the beginning that say, only the top 20 entries for each city will be posted following an initial screening, I think that would be straightforward and fair, no?