Haiku Contest Cheating and Re-Vote

HOUSEKEEPING NOTE: I woke this morning to an almost empty email inbox. It was, admittedly, overstuffed, but I have my methods and systems and knew which ones needed attention. Now, however, they are gone. I'm working to recover them, but probably won't. So if, prior to Sunday evening at about 7PM eastern U.S. time, you had sent a message that needs a reply, please resend. This means you too, "naturehill" since I had not yet posted your where-we-blog photo. Sorry for any inconvenience.

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One of the things I take some pride in regarding Time Goes By is that in going on six years, there has been so little of the disruption that can ruin a blog. Almost no trash-talking, racism, misogyny, name-calling, off-topic rants, etc. I flatter myself that part of the reason is the tone I set, but it has as much to do with the quality of readers here.

There have been a few spam attacks over the years, but that's not the fault of readers, and when there has been the occasional survey or contest, there were no attempts to game them.

Until now.

Shortly before the voting deadline on the haiku contest last week to give away a free blog membership from Typepad, hundreds of votes, all from the same IP address, were recorded for one haiku in a period of about an hour.

As soon as I discovered this, I deleted the voting form and inserted an announcement that voting had been halted due to cheating.

The polling widget I used was free, a simple one that does not prevent repeat votes. Since I do this so infrequently, I'm not going to spend money on a more technically sophisticated system and I relied instead on readers' integrity to vote only once which is not an unreasonable assumption given the quality of TGB readership.

After discovering the ballot box stuffing, I emailed the finalists asking the perpetrator to “'fess up” and got an immediate reply with an apology. I was relieved to know that it was not an elder who dishonored TGB, but the daughter of one of the haiku writers. This was confirmed once I knew the locations of the haiku writer and the daughter who live in different states across the country from one another.

The next problem was how to rectify the issue and award the blog membership with fairness before the window for signing up with Typepad is closed.

Although it is an imposition on you, readers, I'm asking you to vote again and, I am afraid, in a more cumbersome manner. The same three haiku finalists are below, each with one word in bold. Please select the one you like best and vote for it by typing the bolded word into a comment.

The voting period is much shorter this time, open only until midnight tonight, 5 October, eastern U.S. time. Votes that are time-stamped later than that will not be counted. I will do a simple tally and announce the winner here tomorrow, Tuesday. This has the advantage of being completely open; anyone can do the count if something that tedious interests them.

Here are the haikus:

Blogging is a way
for me to bridge the chasm
between the races

Here's a deal for you:
If I become the winner
I'll blog in haiku

Memory bottle
crammed inside my too-small brain
Time to uncork it

Please choose “blogging,” “deal” or “bottle” to type into a comment.

It is nice of Typepad to offer this giveaway to some of its customers. I liked having the opportunity to further elderblogging in this manner and I thought asking for haikus was a fun way to do it. But one dishonest person took the wind out of my sails.

In an era when elected officials are so regularly (and literally) caught with their pants down, when other elected officials and political partisans apparently believe lying about their opponents' positions on issues of critical public debate is an acceptable way to win, this attempt at deceit in nothing more weighty than a fun, little blog contest leaves me wondering if, as a country, we have lost all our integrity.

I feel dejected, betrayed and have no further interest now than to just get the damned contest over with and move on to something else. Please vote anyway.

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At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Brenton "Sandy" Dickson: Disobedience

Comments

[SM UK]

Blogging

[joared]

Bottle

[Colleen]

bottle

[Pat Temiz]

bottle

[Alan G]

Bottle

[William "Papa" Meloney]

Bottle

[Thomas]

bottle

[B DuPree]

Bottle

[Gail]

Bottle

[Bert]

Bottle

[doctafill]

Bottle

[Dee]

Bottle

Dee

[Jackie]

Please uncork the BOTTLE.

[Jackie]

I regret your having been hurt and deceived. I share your feelings and worry daily about the decline of integrity. Being 74 helps me remember a different time.

[zuleme]

Bottle.
It sounds like it would be the most interesting blog. Funny to see, when I opened the comments, how everyone agreed with me.

[Cindy R]

bottle

[mary jamison]

bottle.

[Tnwoman]

Bottle

[connie]

bottle

[Claire Jean]

bottle

[Paula]

deal

[Marge]

What's in the bottle?

[Lyn Strand]

Bottle

[Rain]

That is too bad but possible that the daughter didn't really stop to think what she was doing something dishonorable and would be honest in other settings. Sometimes multiple voting is encouraged to get phone counts up. They have used speed re-dialing to do it. I don't watch it but doesn't Survivor do that? The thing I have run into is reading a blog where they ask me to vote for them (just once but sometimes daily) in some contest-- irrespective of their talent or anybody else's entry. I think people end up losing track of what is right and maybe that's how we have so much dishonesty today. One step and then another and pretty soon you are over the line. Hopefully the daughter learned a lesson and it's sad but I am glad you didn't reveal which entry had done that as it does not sound like it was the fault of the haiku writer.

[Louise]

bottle

[Tarzana]

Bottle

[Deejay]

bottle

[Genie]

Bottle

[lilalia]

Blogging

[ylis]

bottle

[Susan]

BOTTLE-

I just hope that this person isn't the one with the ballot-stuffing daughter.

[Darlene]

Bottle

[aenodia]

Bottle

[mythster]

BOTTLE;

Current popular "wisdom" tends to encourage ballot stuffing and other dishonest practices as "whatever it takes" or the end justifying the means. Oh for those bygone days of yesteryear, when it wasn't winning or losing that counted as much as "how you played the game"

[Sandra Mosley]

deal

[NancyB]

deal

[Paul]

deal

[Carla]

Blogging

[EasyDiverChris]

bottle

[tamar]

Ronni, hang in there. One #$@% apple doesn't make the rest in the barrel foul. Disheartening, I agree, that we are not all upright all the time. Yet I have heard that percentage-wise, the moral compass of most humans is in working order... pointing to OK.

[chancy]

BOTTLE

[Jacquie Grant]

bottle

[Clarence Bowles]

Bottle
I dislike the whole haiku form, so naturally I couldn't vote for the person that threatened to write their Blog in haiku if they won. It's also the reason I didn't submit an entry.

I gave away a Typepad Blog in the past. I simply picked a few people I thought could use one and made them an offer. That was easier.

[Alexandra]

Bottle.

[Polly Jordan]

bottle

[Nana]

deal

[Ruth Marchese]

bottle

[Cowtown Pattie]

bottle

[Virginia]

deal

[Fred]

deal

[Kathleen Perry]

Deal

[Bill]

deal

[Kathy Bahnson]

I choose "deal"

[David Bateman]

Deal

[Marty]

deal

[Susan Bruce]

deal

[NFM]

deal

[aine]

deal

[JSW]

bottle

[olga]

Bottle

[Charlie Hewitt]

deal

[AM Clagett]

Deal

[Judy Wasserman]

DEAL was the haiku I could relate to.

[Allan Moult]

Blogging

[John Willcox]

DEAL!

[B Mann]

DEAL!

[Mayran]

DEAL

[MK horner]

Deal

[Dori]

deal

[R Davis]

Count me: in on The DEAL

[Faith Connors]

I choose Deal

[la peregrina]

bottle

[Mage B]

Bottle....

[Charlotte Dahl]

BOTTLE

[Kathy]

Deal

[Louis]

deal

[Kevin]

deal

[Sheena]

deal

[Brittany]

DEAL

[Brett]

deal