As you probably know Renderosity made a Halloween contest. Community had right to vote on favourite picture. The top 25 winning entries should be selected by Community Vote.
Renderosity asked people to spend their time and vote in this contest. I thought that our voice will be valuable.
So I voted. Many people did. And guess what happened.
I checked today and I found that Renderosity changed rules. Our votes don't mean anything for them.
Now they are trying to convince me and you that rules were not fair so our votes won't be counted. It sound like very bad joke for me. They should remember that they established these rules, so if these rules was not fair enough they should know about it earlier.
Rules are rules and definitely shouldn't be changed during the contest.
I don't like when someone makes joke of me.
I can't find picture that I voted for on this list. Was my vote not good enough?
I checked Voting Results and Semi-Finalists list and its look really bizarre.
In my opinion contest sponsors gave prizes because they wanted to have a good advertisement of their products. What kind of advertisement is it if community votes mean nothing?
It looks really dishonest, unfair and very suspicious.
I don't want to make conspiracy theory but this case really small bad for me.
I am very sorry for all voting people. We all believed that our voice is important.
Maybe Renderosity decided that we have a bad taste.
What a shame.
I won't definitely vote any more.

Voting is subject to fraud, as has been shown in the past, when entrants ask all their friends to vote for them. This means that the best image doesn't win in such a popularity contest, but rather the image whose creator has the most friends. I didn't read their rules, but these contests are often judged by a panel of employees, and the judging process is usually completely opaque. If we need to know their criteria, they'll probably post it somewhere.

Here is part of the rules for the contest that you might have overlooked. # Judging: The top 25 winning entries will be selected by Community Vote.(The community voting results will be reviewed. The winners will be determined by the actual number of eligible votes received. Clone voting and votes from accounts created for the exclusive purpose of voting are not eligible and will not be counted.) The Renderosity admins merely did what they said they were going to do from day 1.

All that kissing-up to friends and relatives, not to mention the substantial bribe money, all just flushed down the toilet??? - FOUL! And really now, just what am I to do with these 25,896 new Yahoo email accounts!

ROFL! I applaud the way they handled the contest. There was obviously something fishy going on with the voting.

Yep, I agree with randym77. First time I've seen R'osity do something about the problem. I hope to see more of the same in the future.

Wolf2001 and All,

I have contacted LillianH about this. She is ahead of that contest so I think it would be best if she explained how the rules were. Please hold tight untill she can be here in the morning. Untill then I ask that you keep this misunderstanding as is and not go out of control.

Thanks!
Ryuslilangel
Poser Moderator

Message edited on: 10/26/2005 23:59

I counted votes and pictures and:
From 246 pictures with votes Renderosity choose 112 and rejected 134.
378 votes were rejected.
My vote was not good too.
Can you tell me why?
378 peoples waste their time.
It is very clever.
I believe that I should be informed about the reason why my vote is invalid.
If I am not full value part of the community I want to know about it earlier.
I talked with two of my friends yesterday and we found that their votes was not good too.
Maybe I have really "big mouth", but I don't like to be treat as a junk.

Wolf2001, I am curious, are you trying to say that Renderosity should have respected EVERYONES vote and moved all 246 pictures to the semifinals? The last time I checked the whole concept behind a contest was that you eliminate people by rounds and in that regard some peoples votes are going to be for naught. I am also curious as to how you and your friends figured out that your votes specifically were not counted. Did you have a piece of art in this contest? I'm not being a big mouth either, I'm just trying to figure out what you are so bent out of shape about.

Dear Wolf2001, We do value everyone's vote. That is why such painstaking measures were taken to try to make it as fair and accurate as possible. Unfortunately, experience has taught us that not everyone plays fair and sometimes people get excited and try to tip the voting scales in their favor, or their friends and family find out about the contest and want to show their support by voting for them. What ever the case may be, we had to set up some guidelines to try to be fair to everyone. That is why the rules stated from the beginning of the contest: (The community voting results will be reviewed. The winners will be determined by the actual number of eligible votes received. Clone voting and votes from accounts created for the exclusive purpose of voting are not eligible and will not be counted.) I did exactly what I said I would do. I reviewed every single vote. After weeding out the invalid votes, there were so many artists that had the same number of valid votes that we had to open the contest to more than 25 images in order to be fair. An independent review was conducted of the remaining images that had 5 votes or less and the Semi-Finalists were selected. This was the fairest possible way that we could determine to correct the voting irregularities that were discovered. My apologies if your vote was among the group of votes that was determined to be ineligible. There were several factors that went into this determination and it was based on the information I had available to me at the time the decision was made. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any further questions or concerns. I will be happy to assist you. Best regards, LillianH Renderosity Marketing Manager

And I've said this from the very beginning; the community vote was a terrible idea and wasted everyone's time. With prizes that big, it should have been judged professionally in a formal manner. I feel bad for those who have been trampled in this event, and for the fact Lillian had to waste her time with all the underworkings trying to steer this crazed bull to a straight path. But the sad fact remains, this contest isn't about the best work presented, it's about politics. And isn't that just what art is all about? I think not. I am disqualifying my images from this fiasco and I have never felt like I have wasted my time and energy as I have with this event. I also feel bad for whoever wins this thing as they will probably be criticized and questioned by those they surpassed. One entry wins with one vote over one which has 24. Ohhh yes, there will be trouble on the horizon, and I'm doing the smart thing and jumping off this sinking ship. They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and this would certainly be proof of that! No more contests for me, I only compete with myself from now on!

Message edited on: 10/27/2005 12:11

I agree with the following: with prizes this costly, some degree of vote-swaying/rigging is inevitable, especially on a board where anyone can create multiple voting accounts easily and free of charge. Why create an environment rife with politics? To avoid such, I think such competitions are better off judged by an independent panel (or individual).

By the way, where are the semi-finalist images listed?

Message edited on: 10/27/2005 12:30

The prizes are not awarded based just on the community vote. The winners will be picked via a "formal judging process."

I think the best work made it to the next level. This happened last year, too. Many of the top voter-getters did not win any prizes (deservedly so, IMO). The eventual winning image was not my pick, but it's a great image, and I certainly understand why it won.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/index.ez?viewStory=12062

Just get rid of the voting system, we all know it's being abused. Ban the artists & images that were voted on with fraud votes! Ban the persons who did fraud voting! Ban the voting system! Anything else (besides me) that is in need of a ban?

Oh, I'm glad they changed it. I'm sure this will even things out more. How do they decide whether votes are ineligible or not, out of curiousity?

I think the administration is damned if they do and damned if they don't. It seems to me that they've gone out of their way to make this as fair as possible. With so many great images I'm sure it's going to be hard to decide the winners and then they'll have to weather the next round of criticism of their choices. Give em a break, it was all in fun in my opinion anyway.

Oh yeah, just wanted to say (for no good reason except that it's an awesome image) that #18069 is excellent and funny too! I did a search for the artist "bodger", but found no gallery here for this person. Hmmm, wonder who this is? LOL

I didn't clone my vote (I don't even know how could I clone it) and believe me that at January 2005 when I was creating my account I had no idea that you will create Halloween contest (so as I believe I am here not only for voting purpose).

Hi "Jlyons" you asked how could I know that my vote was not counted.
The answer is very simple. I know which picture I chose, so if I can't find it on the list I conclude that my vote was not counted (all pictures with at least one vote are on the list). My friends had the same situation. In my opinion this is good method of verification. Don't you think so.

I am not longer going to waste my nerves. This should be a good fun, but it wasn't for me. It is only my private opinion so you do not need to bother.

Seriously yours.

It's not true that all pictures with at least one vote are on the list.

One person admitted in this forum that he voted for his own image. So his image must have had at least one vote. But it's not on the list.