My Christmas EGG TREE!

[firetrucksrule]

that is cute

 

[ChickLover98]

Hi and

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
Thanks firetrucksrule & welcome to BYC, nice to have you here for the holidays!

 

[hispoptart]

Voted!

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Grinchly news to report: the contest has obviously been hacked. The two front-runners in the contest had been running neck-and-neck since before I entered my Egg tree on 12/9/11. On that date, Tree #20 had 1167 total votes and tree #23 had 1156 total votes after about ten days of voting.

Curiously, they both continued to hover around 23--24% of the votes for another ten days with votes coming in surges at very specific times of the day routinely. Neither took over the lead from the other by more than a smattering of votes for the next 11 days (likely so as not to draw undue attention to their tactics).

Meanwhile, we entered the contest on 12/9 and grew our voting campaign, slowly and methodically, encouraging friends to share and those friends to share on Facebook, Twitter, BYC and wherever else they could and it paid off- we took over the lead on 12/20 at 11am with 23.29% of the votes (the total number of votes was hidden at that point on the poll).

By 5pm on 12/20, tree #20 had 2566 votes, tree #23 had 2498 votes and I had 2516 votes with tree #35, the Egg tree.

Miraculously (NOT) in under 48 hours, tree #20 catapulted from 2566 votes to 4021, that's a mammouth leap of 1,455 votes in 42 hours to bring her share of the votes to 30.69%!!!

I am acquainted with the woman who entered tree #20 and am certain she is not behind this personally. There is no legitimate explanation for the 1/3 increase in her votes in 42 hours.

I asked an IT friend of mine how the poll could possibly be comprimised since when I vote from my home computer, I get a 'Thanks you've already voted' message if it's attempted a second time in one day. He explained that it's quite simple and directed me to this link for proof of that proposition: http://www.hackerslane.com/2009/polldaddy-polls-unlimited-voting-exploit/

I did bring this to the atttention of Cooper Boone, who is running the contest, encouraging him to acknowledge it publicly and to do the right thing and his reponse was: "However votes are being cast is beyond my control."

We made an honest effort and did some outstanding campaigning for backyard chickens together but sadly it's possible to win honestly anymore. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your fervent support and encouragement and will of course honor the giveaways. Feel free to email or PM me at: [email protected] if you'd like.

 

[critterrun]

I voted today again

LETS GO BYC VOTE !!!!

GO EGG TREE !!!!!

 

[MSDeb]

I voted anyway. Maybe Cooper will quietly check out the possible fraud and fix it. Fingers crossed.

 

[ChickLover98]

Gosh, that is so unfair! I really hope Cooper decides to do something!

 

[annie3001]

wow, i went and voted today again. and got thank you, you have already voted. thats awful. i truly believe you have the prettiest tree and most unique out there. sorry thats happening.

 

[3goodeggs]

Well, I voted again anyway. Maybe it will work out.
You won our contest though. And your prize is...... ta da! Just a hug and a big thank you for helping us have fun on BYC!

but they are sincere hugs!