apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Lynda, what do you mean? I know that after I vote on these contests, when I go back to the voting page again, it just shows the results graph. If I hit reload it doesn't give the little voting circles again. I thoght that is blocked. What browser do you use, Lynda - you can vote more than once?

Wow, are there really 988 people on AT? If so then about 1% actually post.

Anne -
Please...at least 1.487% post! These contests do bring people out of the woodwork, though.

After thinking about it I was going to bring it up to about 4%. Boy, that sure is thick woodwork!

How is it that Brooke received OVER 150 VOTES IN 1 HOUR? When she barely had that many throughout the entire contest? Something smells awfully funny here!!!!

I actually agree (and I AM brooke). I even called my mom to make sure she hadn't sent out the link to her friends (she hadn't). I am just as curious as you are.

(and actually a little shocked...)

Anything could happen at the last minute. I am always amazed at how quickly these contests change in the last few minutes. I know that sometimes when I'm excited about a contestant, I email a link to my buddies so they can vote too. Of course I try to get them to vote for my fave, but I have no control over that. Some of my friends and co-workers have eventually become semi-regulars to the site but not all of them participate in a contest without prodding from me. So, I'm sure that's how lots of votes increase. No big mystery, people tell other people...

I'm taking a poll.

How soon before we read on Curbed about the Now Discredited Contests at AT based on (appropriately discredited) Internet Polling?

Did the West Coast contest end already?

Guido,

Hopefully sooner rather than later!
This finish does not reflect the consistent voting patterns that existed up until 1 HOUR before voting ended!

My cynical side suspects the reason there's very little control on the voting mechanism is precisely because of the process Diane mentions -- if someone (or several someones) emails his/her entire extended social circle to come vote (preferably for him/her), the site picks up new readers PLUS better hit counts to show potential advertisers.

(I'm not saying anyone self-promoted more aggressively than anyone else. An entry could as easily be promoted by someone several degrees removed from the person entering, and without his/her knowledge.)

Maxwell will have to hire two guys named Vinnie to come break my knees now.

Wende, that's funny, I didn't even think about the actual contestants asking people to vote for them. I have never entered any AT contests, so when I tell other people about them, it's just a way to share my enthusiasm and see if my favorite will win. But it seems that some people are pretty steamed about this one. I hope everyone remembers not to take it too seriously, as Maxwell stated at the top of the voting page.

Brook's votes only increased by 73 in the last hour of the contest. All votes went up after the contest ended.

We are always trying to get the right balance between total chaos and total control here at AT in relation to our contests, and certainly online voting is open to many, many loopholes, the biggest one of which is friends emailing friends and asking them to vote... which we don't really consider a loophole. If you have a lot of friends who vote, then good for you. We can't stop self promotion and really wouldn't want to. That said, in our finals we are now experimenting with judges making the final determinations to balance this.

Also, There are A LOT of people reading this site now, so even if a small fraction decide to vote at the last minute, it will really tip the scales.

That said, it's lunchtime.

By the way, I think there were two different Brookes in this contest; one by herself and another one with her man. And seriously, I really liked all the entries a lot more equally than usual.

hmm, I like that contestants need to send 2 more images for the Finals? But the contest originally asked people to submit just 2 images. Brooke sent in 4, Laura sent in 6 and Katies sent in 8. How about asking everyone to send in enought to bring total to 10 so they are all fair? So Katei sends 2, Laura 4,and Brooke 6.

Or have everyone eliminate images to bring it down to 4 each total.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's really going on here. I think it's pretty lame that people are voting multiple times (anyone can sit behind the computer and click the enter button over and over again). And to those who feign ignorance to the allegations, please, don't take the rest of us for fools. I'm sure ALL the contestants had multiple votes (some more than others) but the last hour's numbers were, to put it mildly, ridiculous. Which leads me to say why even bother calling it a contest and giving away prizes if the voting isn't even close to fair? In the future I think AT should make the selection(s) for recognition (or choose contest winners) by whatever method they find to be fair. If the voting is this out of control then why even bother entering their contests?

And if AT insists on having an online vote, why not have 1 vote per e-mail address? Or something in place to help weed out the multiple voting perpetrators.

BTW, it's highly unlikely that a spike in numbers of those proportions would be a natural occurrence. And the reason people take it seriously is that it's called a contest and some people may feel disappointed by a clearly flawed and unfair voting system.

Well, it's not like there's a big prize at the end of it all. So if any finalist is doing multi voting it would be for ego only.

This past week there was a heated exchange bet. Brooke and others here. Is this the same Brooke as the finalist?

Anne,
The Brooke that everyone was arguing with was part of "Brook and Andy" (or was it Brooke and Eric?) and they live in Brooklyn. They are the ones with the sneeze painting, the dollar bill, and the giant boobs painting (Entry #30). This Brooke is a totally different person (Entry #14) in Manhattan.

I am the Brooke from the contest but I am not sure I know about any any "exchange bet." Methinks its another Brooke.

Also, I am a bit horrified that Lynda (and perhaps Henri) would suggest that I sat here and clicked and reclicked on my name for hours today. I didn't. Nor did I at any other point.

Full disclosure: I did vote "awesome" for myself in the first round and voted for myself in the Semis (as I assume all the contestents did). But that is it. Hope that clears anything up. (If only I had that much time...the things that could be accomplished!)

Thanks Diane. It was a stupid question since I should have separated the 2 entries and come to the right conclusion.

BTW, I love the RAINBOW, brooke, and would love to see it once the lights are installed.

Sandie quoth: "What browser do you use, Lynda - you can vote more than once?"

I'm not Lynda... but it's not the browser that does it. As far as I can tell, it's whether you have an "I voted" cookie stored on your computer. I haven't experimented with this in any detail (like voting twice on purpose), but when I clear all my cookies, I'm suddenly presented with voting choices again.

Some applications also record what IP the votes came from, making it possible to eliminate votes if, say, 70 votes came from the same IP under circumstances that make that level of voting implausible. That's a judgment call that requires some knowledge of where your normal pattern of hits comes from and how the larger ISPs handle IP assignment.

Joe,

I beg to differ, between 10:51 and 11:50 Brooke's numbers went up by OVER 150 VOTES! Impossible to believe that this is innocent! Considering the fact that she had a total of 154 votes at 10:51 this morning and then had 341 votes at 11:50 this morning.

I'm sorry but I do not believe that this is just a weird computer thing here. In fact the more I think about the absolute impossibilty of this happening legitimately, the more I think she should be disqualified!

Lee didn't get "nipped" by Brooke, she was robbed!

Henri -- Doesn't this depend on what counts as guilt?

I don't recall anything in the rules that prevents people from telling their friends about the contest. If a contestant's extended social network decides to vote for them, that does seem to be within the rules as currently stated. And it doesn't require any evil intentions or sneaky activities from the contestant himself or herself. One innocent "look at me!" email could turn into a push the contestant doesn't know anything about.

So an odd-looking voting pattern -- even one that might clearly indicate lots of "drive by" voters who aren't interested in AT -- doesn't necessarily mean that any contestant did anthing screwy.

I think it's important to maintain the distinctions among "this looks weird on the surface" (yes!), "this may not contribute to the community we want to have" (worth arguing), and "a contestant did something wrong" (a much bigger leap).

that's good info wendeSF

if contests drive people to the site, that's terrific
if contestants or friends of contestants (or crotchety haters of other contestants) are not honoring the one vote per person request, that's pathetic

It would be nice if AT saw fit to do an ISP check, just to adjust the system as needed.
Calling out sock puppets that way certainly worked on a message board I frequent when some were posting under multiple names . . .

it's just an internet poll, but it would be so much nicer if nobody felt creepy about results actually reflecting local opinion.

rainbow brooke, I don't think anyone is accusing you personally of anything. you have a lovely place.

Anyone remember the Color Smackdown last year? The winner had close to 3000 votes.

Folks come on!

The mathematical probability of this occuring naturally is zero!

51 minutes and OVER 150 NEW VOTES!!!

when from 2/3/06 to 2/6/06 she had a total of 154 votes and then in the last 51 minutes of voting everyone (simultaneously!) decided that Brooke's was the best, again in the last 51 minutes of the contestant after she was consistently in 4th place until then!

I'll say it again,I think Brooke should be disqualified!

Hmmm maybe I count as one of those "drive by" voters. I saw Brooke's reference to her entry in this contest on another list/board that we both belong to and chose to vote even though I've never posted here before. I love her entry and voted for her maybe out of some kind of list/board "team loyality"...I dunno. I bet lots of us from the other list (we number in the thousands by now I think) voted for her too.

Henri, what time zone are you in? Maxwell said he reloaded at exactly 12noon and the image above clearly shows that Brooke had 227 votes at that time. When he gave us all an hour to go it was just a few minutes before 11am, and she had 154. So in a little over one hour there were 73 additional votes. It was 12noon when he took the count and shared with us the screen capture you see at the top of this page. I assume that was Eastern Time. The numbers did continue to go up into the 300's after 12noon for all the contestants, but your assertion that that Brooke had 341 votes before 12noon is just plain incorrect. I looked at it around 12:30 Eastern Time and no one was at 300 yet. You must be in a different time zone or looked at your clock wrong. And by the way, Henri, whining is so unattractive.

Joe,

I might have viewed your comments with respect if you hadn't chosen to make this personal about. Stating the obvious (that someone cheated) is not whining!

Is this all because I live on the Upper East Side???

;)

Henri you seem to have some personal vendetta against Brooke. Are you in anyway related to another contestant? Why are you so set on proving she cheated in some way?

I think everyone agrees the voting is slightly flawed and yes people get their friends to vote for them. But you seem to be taking this thing quite seriously. Just wondering what makes this your personal mission?

I have no personal vendetta and am not related to any of the contestants nor do I know anyone within this web site.

I am a mathematician by profession and know the sheer impossibility / improbability of this having occurred naturally given the voting patterns prior to 10:51 this morning!

Go back and give it a look and everyone should come to the same conclusion.

Henri -- As a mathematician, I'm sure you're aware of Occam's razor.

The most parsimonious explanation for Brooke's surge is that "word got out" among her social circle and many voted for her. Hey, she has friends! Given her demonstrated good taste, that seems unsurprising. And it's not against the rules.

Active cheating would be much more time-consuming (I'm not sure it's physically possible in the limited time) and is a serious accusation to make without proof of HOW the vote surge occurred.

If you believe strongly that there should be tighter controls on who can vote or that semi-finals should not be reader-judged, there was a thread last week on this very topic, and I'm sure you can make valuable contributions to it.

I mean this in the kindest manor, but you people are seriously kidding yourselves, border on delusional!

Henri must've been voting for someone else and now he's upset that Brooke got votes! His reaction is so over the top. Henri, what about Katie who went from 196 at 11:00 to 239 at 12:00, and is now at 318? Well, that's a jump of 122 votes in the same two hours that you're complaining about Brooke's votes going up by 150 - seems strange that you aren't you whining about Katie's votes, too.

Personally, who cares. There's no million $ lottery at stake and we all seem to like the finalists work so whoever wins I say "congratulations" and to the others I say "great fun, good work and have a nice day". Flawed or not, it's just a nice way to see how others incorporate art. So, Henri, drop the mathmatics, chill and have fun with it.

Math sucks!

I also think the actual site traffic numbers would surprise us all, so I suspect the voting numbers actually represent only a tiny percentage of actual traffic...

Plus, just cuz you send the link out to a friend, doesn't mean they are going to vote for you!

And, um, aren't we a society of procrastinators? I would expect a surge at the finish line as much as I would expect lines at the post office on April 15th...

And let's save our collective nastiness until the REAL end of this contest.. when the East Coast whoops some West Coast art-a$$!!! :)

I really think Patrick is right. It is likely a combination of procrastination and people finding out their friends need a few votes. That would lend itself to a voting pattern that is not evenly spread out over the contest period.

Thinking about it some more I would expect that in contests like this you would see a big surge right when voting opens, a lull through the middle, then a flurry at the end. I am sure with a little googling we could find some articles on what one would expect to see happen in these situations. I seriously doubt that an even pattern of voting would be expected, but if you have some references that suggest otherwise please present those Henri.

Why would one not expect to see a dramatic increae in votes near the end? I would expect that is when people are making last second attempts to get themselves some votes (this is completely me theorizing and not suggesting any contestant did this in this contest, only a hypothetical discussion of a completely generic contest!).

Please lay off the deragatory comments about contestants and other posters Henri. You just hurt your chances of anyone taking you seriously when your knee jerk reaction is name calling.

Now, as Patrick mentioned, lets get ready to rumble in the east coast-west coast smackdown!!!

43 ADDITIONAL VOTES DOES NOT COMPARE TO 150!

"Math sucks" Petunia?

No it's much more like, the truth sucks on this web site!

And lastly,

Hey Brooke I could care less where (a cheater, such as yourself) lives!

Gosh, Henri why do you insist on saying Brooke's votes went up by 150 at 12:00 when they only went up by 73? Can't you see the numbers in the image that Maxwell posted? At 12:00, when he reloaded his browser and declared the contest over, Brooke had 227 and Katie had 239. Brooke's had climbed by 73, Katies by 43. Any votes accumulated above those numbers happened AFTER 12:00. You're wrong.

You people are too stupid for me!

There is also a HUGE drop-off in traffic on this site over the weekend, and a BIG uptick once everybody has their first cup of caffeine on Monday morning... also helps to explain things some more.

And dear god, even if someone's friends are so inclined to be so friggin' passionate about this to do an email push, let 'em. Passion is good when art is involved.

And as Curtis mentioned, a strong showing all around.

I'm just bummed that Boris is out of the hopping.. er, running.

"43 ADDITIONAL VOTES DOES NOT COMPARE TO 150!"

Hey, Henri, correct! Excellent math skills!
Go to the head of the class.

Preferably, someone else's class.

Henri, you are way too invested. Which means that you care deeply about one of the non-winning finalists, so I'll choose to look at it as sweet.

This is the first time I didn't vote in a contest, because I couldn't really decide, and then time flew. Maybe others felt the same, but they did vote at the end?

And I go on other boards sometimes, where people post contests they are in. If you want to vote, you do, and if not, you don't. I don't see the harm in that. It's not like the contestant can control your vote.

People have won in other contests, and I didn't think they had the best entry. Everyone's opinion is different. Sometimes, your favorite isn't everyone else's favorite.

You just proved my point Henri.

I am really interested in the East-West Finals! There are only two finalists from the West Coast. Out of those, I really like Dana's bathroom. Interesting to note is the fact that, out of the original ten entries for the West, only three of them submitted more than two images. I guess we East Coasters are a ballsy lot! Anyway, it should be a good showdown. I can't wait until my pad is in good enough shape to enter an AT contest!

yeah, why is the west coast so civil compared to the east? A fraction of the votes, and barely a comment. Maybe us west coasters need to put on the boxing gloves for the finals...! I think we are going to get seriously clobbered!

Diane I... I actually did submit more than two photos, but they didn't post all of the ones I sent. I sent additional photos, because I thought I should leave it up to the experts to choose which two of my not-very-high-quality photos would work best on the site. I think part of the trouble came in with the extra photos when people sent in all of their art all over the house; impossible to show in just two photos. I'd thought the contest was about showing one distinct arrangement and how it fit in with the decor/pulled the room together.

This contest has been really fun... as an artist myself it is so great to see how people live with (and love!) their art. I would be dreamy to think of making a total stranger as happy with one of my pieces as I am with my little collection.

Actually, I don't think that there has been very much said about what the prizes are this time, and I must say that some of the people in the color contest were actually saying, "We want the prize (gift certifate, but still...) money and we'll do whatever we can to win."

And I honestly can't remember if they did or not. I think somebody who knows like a squillion and a half people because of work she does for Habitat for Humanity won, or something.

Anyway... Brooke sounds pretty dang innocent, and he apartment looks pretty dang pretty and her art rocks, and honestly I repeat, this was a close race, and I think that Henri should volunteer his services to future contests instead of just being mean to Brooke.

And Brooke, hon, I think that you SHOULD continue to call yourself "Brooke (rainbow)", because it will distinguish you from that other Brooke just for clarity, and there are worse phrases that I could think of -- especially for those of us who think so visually that we would always think of you because of your living room. For us, it will always be your "face".

Finalists -- congratulations! And go take some excellent photographs for that last round!