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Thursday, January 30, 2014
Reminder...Polls for the best races of 2013 close on the 31st of Jan
Just a reminder that the polls for the best road races in Cork and Munster close at midnight on Friday the 31st of January.
See the right hand side of this page for the various options.
Its hard to see if an AAI permitted race or not puts runners off attending a race,I remember your post on the day of the Gortoe 5k yet it is being voted as the best 5k in cork.
Something very fishy in the voting here - all of a sudden votes for Cheetah have jumped by at least 100 in last half hour when polls were to be closed by midnight ... Don't think it's a true reflection of all the 4m road races
The polls were supposed to close at 23:59 on Friday evening. I checked it at about 00:20 and it said that there were 7 hours left! I'm not sure how that happened? It seems to have to have changed the Irish time I put in a few weeks back into a US one. Anyway, I manually closed all of the polls at about 00:22.
Very unfair John ,you should see what the votes looked like at midnight and close it from that time. Plenty of people were watching the poll to confirm who had won at midnight !!
This year's polls reads like an intrigue novel, or maybe, a US Tea Party election campaign.
There was canvassing, using extensive mailing lists, parish newsletters, on-line papers, social media, and even church pulpits. All we're short is brown envelopes!
There are new races going straight to the top of some polls, while well established, quality, events languish at the bottom?
I don't know how they managed it, but, early yesterday morning, in one of the polls, the two leaders had approx. 350 votes between then. When the poll finally closed, they had over 1000 - and yet the gap between them was, more or less, the same as when they had just the 350 votes.
At 9pm last night, I checked before going out. There were about 25 votes between them. This morning another 200 votes appear to have been cast for them after 9m.
Then we had "Timegate", with the clock running on - reminiscent of Texas and the hanging chad saga.
And we had the previous posters, waiting up, with bated breath, for the results, clamouring for the shutters to come down.
Only one thing for it!.....call in Miss Marples. [However there may be claims of bias here too....Angela Lansbury used to live in East Cork]
Regarding the 4 mile vote, I think it's probably best that it is declared void. I have no way of checking what it was like at midnight and can't confirm who was ahead or behind at that stage.
Looking at the voting pattern over the past few days, there was a lot of sudden activity in the 5km poll also. I recall seeing jumps of 10 to 15 votes in short periods of time. Longer more established races are left lagging behind.
Also interesting to note that many of the races received more votes than runners that took part. Nice idea to get people to vote but shame it probably reflects the more proactive pr campaign around voting than quality of race. I think the number of positive comments after each race on this great blog would probably be a more true reflection.
I guess the only way to keep the votes reasonably accurate is to use facebook 'likes' or some other account based interaction. Given that it's an anonymous well intentioned survey (which is unfortunately open to misuse), we just need to live with the results 'as is'.
In reality, only someone who ran ALL of the races would be in a position to actually form an opinion as to which race was best, so there would be few enough who would be in a position to give a genuine opinion as to which they thought was best (again, entirely subjective too unless someone is proposing that a panel be put together with strict criteria on how races should be judged/assessed).
I say, keep up the great work with the site John and never mind the complaints! I can understand how people would feel hard done by if it appeared that there was misuse/abuse of the poll, but there's nothing you can do about it as it stands.
The thing about the deadline is moot too -what is the difference between closing the poll at 11pm or midnight or 13:21 the next day etc etc etc. People shouldn't be leaving it 'till the last minute to vote if they have already made up their mind. Same applies for entering a race online!
Interesting to see how you control for 'tactical' voting, I.e. Canvassing for votes
ReplyDeleteIt's a public vote. Race organisers are free to canvas people that took part in their race if they want.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to see if an AAI permitted race or not puts runners off attending a race,I remember your post on the day of the Gortoe 5k yet it is being voted as the best 5k in cork.
ReplyDeleteinteresting to see every time a race gets close to the leader of the 4mile poll,the leader jumps ahead by 20 or 30 votes.i voted for youghal
ReplyDeleteVotes for the leading races seems to have jumped a lot in 24 hours, are these genuine votes or is there something going on?
ReplyDeleteHi John,are the polls not closed from midnight? Ballintotis look to have won but fota votes still coming in !!
ReplyDeleteWhat's going on John with poll .??
ReplyDeleteBallintotis have won the 4 ml but votes still coming in.its now 00.10
Hi john,in your article polls suspose to close at 12midnight.why didn't this happen.
ReplyDeleteSomething very fishy in the voting here - all of a sudden votes for Cheetah have jumped by at least 100 in last half hour when polls were to be closed by midnight ... Don't think it's a true reflection of all the 4m road races
ReplyDeleteThe polls were supposed to close at 23:59 on Friday evening. I checked it at about 00:20 and it said that there were 7 hours left! I'm not sure how that happened? It seems to have to have changed the Irish time I put in a few weeks back into a US one. Anyway, I manually closed all of the polls at about 00:22.
ReplyDeleteVery unfair John ,you should see what the votes looked like at midnight and close it from that time. Plenty of people were watching the poll to confirm who had won at midnight !!
ReplyDeleteHi john.anyone can make a mistake but hope your results will reflect the midnight vote.
ReplyDeleteLOL at all the indignation.
ReplyDeleteThis year's polls reads like an intrigue novel, or maybe, a US Tea Party election campaign.
There was canvassing, using extensive mailing lists, parish newsletters, on-line papers, social media, and even church pulpits. All we're short is brown envelopes!
There are new races going straight to the top of some polls, while well established, quality, events languish at the bottom?
I don't know how they managed it, but, early yesterday morning, in one of the polls, the two leaders had approx. 350 votes between then. When the poll finally closed, they had over 1000 - and yet the gap between them was, more or less, the same as when they had just the 350 votes.
At 9pm last night, I checked before going out. There were about 25 votes between them. This morning another 200 votes appear to have been cast for them after 9m.
Then we had "Timegate", with the clock running on - reminiscent of Texas and the hanging chad saga.
And we had the previous posters, waiting up, with bated breath, for the results, clamouring for the shutters to come down.
Only one thing for it!.....call in Miss Marples. [However there may be claims of bias here too....Angela Lansbury used to live in East Cork]
Regarding the 4 mile vote, I think it's probably best that it is declared void. I have no way of checking what it was like at midnight and can't confirm who was ahead or behind at that stage.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteSurely the records have been saved to a database. It would surprise me if the records (each vote) didn't have a date stamp.
Can you check this out
Looking at the voting pattern over the past few days, there was a lot of sudden activity in the 5km poll also. I recall seeing jumps of 10 to 15 votes in short periods of time. Longer more established races are left lagging behind.
ReplyDeleteThere is no database of votes. There is no way to verify what the vote was at some time in the past or who voted. It's just a basic online poll.
ReplyDeleteAlso interesting to note that many of the races received more votes than runners that took part. Nice idea to get people to vote but shame it probably reflects the more proactive pr campaign around voting than quality of race. I think the number of positive comments after each race on this great blog would probably be a more true reflection.
ReplyDeleteI guess the only way to keep the votes reasonably accurate is to use facebook 'likes' or some other account based interaction. Given that it's an anonymous well intentioned survey (which is unfortunately open to misuse), we just need to live with the results 'as is'.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, only someone who ran ALL of the races would be in a position to actually form an opinion as to which race was best, so there would be few enough who would be in a position to give a genuine opinion as to which they thought was best (again, entirely subjective too unless someone is proposing that a panel be put together with strict criteria on how races should be judged/assessed).
I say, keep up the great work with the site John and never mind the complaints! I can understand how people would feel hard done by if it appeared that there was misuse/abuse of the poll, but there's nothing you can do about it as it stands.
The thing about the deadline is moot too -what is the difference between closing the poll at 11pm or midnight or 13:21 the next day etc etc etc. People shouldn't be leaving it 'till the last minute to vote if they have already made up their mind. Same applies for entering a race online!
All the best!
F.