How can I begin this? Well, if you haven’t already seen, Louise wrote it perfectly, but I thought I’d post too, in case anyone missed it.
Once the finalists of the contest were announced, the voting took off like a blazing forest fire. Seriously. I figured at the end of the week the winner would have, oh, I don’t know, around 5,000 votes. By the end of the first day, however, some were over 10,000 votes. And by end of the second day, some were over 50,000. Yeah, FIFTY THOUSAND. Talk about a mind blow. Remember, people could vote as many times as they wanted, so it didn’t mean that 50,000 people had voted. What it did mean, though, is that many people had sacrificed long hours and tired fingers voting away for their favorite couple. Unfortunately, it also meant that “bots” were involved. Voting robots that continuously voted and would continue to vote until the poll was taken offline. I can’t imagine how high the numbers would have been had we let it continue.
What started out as fun contest with nothing but good intentions, turned bad when complaining about the voting began, and got ugly when bots became involved. Because that’s not fair. At all. And above all else, Louise and I just want this to be fair. And fun. Fair and fun.
So we’re starting the voting over. Completely. Because it just wouldn’t be fair to count all those votes that were hacked, and there’s almost no way of tracking them. There’s also no way to blame anyone. Don’t go there, please. I hope no one goes there. If anything, I’m going to take it as a compliment and be flattered that someone would go that far just for me to photograph their wedding ; ) Honestly though, it’s just a sad situation and I’m sorry it had to come to this.
I’m sorry for those of you who voted fairly, diligently, passionately. I’m sorry for any time lost. Any stress, anxiety, and anger that was felt. I know it has probably left a sour taste in a lot of mouths. But Louise and I worked hard to come up with a solution that will hopefully sweeten the situation. We’re not disqualifying anyone (again, no one is to blame), and we’re starting a new voting system that will be fair. Because the contestants deserve that, as do their faithful voters.
To vote, all you have to do is send an email to DulceContest@gmail.com, and put your couple’s names in the title of the email AND in the body of the email. The voting will end tomorrow, February 11, at 11:59pm Eastern time, which is 9:59pm here in Utah. No votes received after that will count. Not too hard, right? And not nearly as time consuming as voting over and over again! Oh and one last thing. Only ONE vote per email address. No voting over and over with the same account, please : )
So that’s it! I’m truly sorry again for any heartache this has caused. It was not intentional in the least bit. For those of you who were voting before, I hope you’ll vote again.
And don’t worry. Because the best part of this new voting scenario?? Frisky approves!!
(Or maybe he’s just happy that now I can come take a nap with him.)
Happy Voting (again)!
(Click here if you want to see all the couples and their answers.)
