Spoiler at the fair not clearer than mud!

Am I misunderstanding? I have been wading thru the photos to cast my dial up vote and I find

May I add, especially since the above banner still reads "Voting for the Dave's Garden County Fair is open! Please vote for your favorites now. "

Yep as your quotes states voting closes at midnight Pacific time today. We on the east coast get to vote in the wee hours. Not clear whether daylight or standard.

Yes.... I'm thinking it was poorly staged.

Sad that I missed some votes even tho I can still admire the photos.

Concur, apparently they cut off the vote at the end of the 7th.

I guess the technicality would be the definition of midnight but the explanation still isn't gonna make me feel better.

Thought a fair was supposed to be fun! 8 (

Technically speaking, 10/8 began at 12 AM (midnight) last night. Midnight tonight will be 10/9. So it sounds like they did cut off the voting when they said they would, but most people still think of midnight as belonging to the previous day so it's a bit confusing.

Yes, I'd had it figured out but it still doesn't assuage my bent feelings.

Considering the low tally of votes cast, I suspect I am not alone.

Yeah--your post and mine must have gone through at just about the exact same moment! Maybe next time the voting could close at 11:59 instead of midnight, that way nobody could be confused about the date.

Yes and perhaps with a specific time clarification of a.m. or p.m.

This message was edited Oct 8, 2010 9:23 PM

I also thought it meant the cutoff was midnight of the 8th. Otherwise they should have said midnight of the 7th.

I mean, really, who in the world would understand they meant it that way?

Yes... I think even DG Admin was thinking otherwise. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1132376/#new

Confusing ... voting closed at midnight on 10/07 ... but it still says at the top of this and every page:

Voting for the DG County Fair is now Open! Please vote for your favorites now!

??????? Why is that notification still at the top of every page????

I did get a chance to vote and their were wonderful photo's. Congratulations to all the winners!

I'm confused about something else I saw on another thread about a Recipe category?? When I was looking through all the categories I never saw anything about recipes. What's up with that? I would love to be pointed in the direction of the recipes and winners of that category!

Well, I entered late but voted on time. I had a gross error in two of my entries and somehow entered two veggie garden photos under the patio/balcony section. If you saw two that don't look legit in that category they are mine...I confess and feel awful about potentially skewing the vote in that category.
Laurel

The recipes were on the DG Facebook page rather than with the rest of the contest, so I would assume the winners would be there as well (although I haven't gone and looked for them yet)

Hmm, I m not a FB member and have no plans to become one. I hope the photos stay up for all to enjoy for awhile. There was such a basketful of talent across the board. I'd be baffled and miffed if DG posted contest results on FB before they posted on their own site.
Laurel

I was ... It was the 1 catagory that everyone could participate in before they put it on fb. :-( I'll be careful to read the rules and regulations in the future. I was very disappointed. :-( :-( I was very excited about it.

IO1 ~ where was the link that had all those recipes posted? I can't find it, has it been deleted?

The only thing I know is I posted my recipe on the "Cooking" forum and was told they were posted on fb.

Thanks that is where it was... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1130111/#new I had been looking in the recipe forum.

I do apologize - we were all operating on the assumption that midnight on October 8 meant when the clock struck midnight on Friday, not Thursday. We'll talk about that with those who were in charge of setting the timers and make sure we are much clearer on the photo contest.

The Facebook/DG forum combo for voting on recipes was a lesson learned. Ideally it would have been on one site or the other, but we had to find a way to vote on recipes (as you know, we don't have any sort of "vote" or "like" buttons within our forum posts.) And we picked up some new "fans" for the DG Facebook page, which is a nice way to reach more gardeners and lead them to DG. But it is something we will look at improving for next year.

Many, MANY thanks to all who shared photos, and all our volunteer "judges" who voted on them during the County Fair! I hope that most everyone who "attended" this virtual event had a good time and yes, the photos will remain visible, and blue ribbons will be awarded to the winners (on their member pages) ASAP.

I'm sure the banner will soon come down too...

Yes, since voting stopped 3 days ago, why hasn't the annoying banner been removed? I found this whole process to be very confusing so I didn't even bother to vote. I, too, do not have AND WILL NEVER HAVE a Facebook page, so could not have voted on the recipes even if I wanted to. We've had the voting booth for years - why couldn't we have used a form of that for voting?

I keep saying this and will reiterate...it was loads of fun. I've always had a secret wish to enter something in the Georgia Hiawassee state fair, but never had the nerve. This was a great stepping stone. Maybe next year some categories could be suggested by DG members prior to the fair and represent popular input? I liked that submission rules were not overly spelled out though I stuck to only things that I made or grew. I wish there was a way to edit bad entries even after the close. I was more than a little embarrassed about my faulty entries in the balcony garden section after thinking people who posted cats under farm animals were nutz. lol All in all, it was a learning experience and a great idea on behalf of DG.
Laurel

This message was edited Oct 10, 2010 5:45 PM

It was fun and I voted in each of the catagories...where do I find the winners? Jo

click on the banner above...

Thanks...but I found it and looked at all of them...Jo

Where? I don't seem to have a banner above. Is it possible to post the recipes into a forum like sticky in recipes so everyone can see them now?

Gramm ~ I don't know if this is all of the recipes but this link has recipes and I see it has winners listed at the bottom. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1130111/#new

That does have all the recipes :-)

I received a note from a DG friend today saying she had seen and enjoyed my entries. How did she know which entries are mine? Where have those been published? I saw the list of winners but was hoping to see the names of all the participants as I thought every entry was wonderful.
Laurel

Here's the link: http://davesgarden.com/contest/2010-daves-garden-county-fair

If you want to see all the pictures that were submitted for a category, you just scroll down through the winners for that category, and at the bottom of the page there's a link to see the rest of the pictures.

Thank you both.

It was nice to get to see the results. Thanks Pod. I had wondered ...

edoted to add ... thank you also Terry. :-) I'll look forward to participating next year.

This message was edited Oct 12, 2010 10:42 PM

I feel almost famous. lol I loved looking at everybody's entries! Really inspiring.

We had this same timing problem with the submission deadline for the photo contest. Maybe a countdown timer could be added to the submission/voting pages?

Another thing that might need clarifying for next year... I thought the intent was to showcase barns, animals, gardens, etc. that were our own, and I suggested at the outset that this might need to be mentioned in the rules. I think Terry was the one who said she thought that would be obvious without mentioning it.. but there were a number of entries in "barns" that were photos of somebody else's barn, ditto for a couple entries in "preserved foods."

I'm not suggesting that the folks who submitted those photos did anything wrong, as the contest just asked for photos we took, not photos we took of our own stuff. But depending on what the intent is for the fair entries, that might be something to mention next year.

I initially thought it was more of a photo contest until I read about not visibly enhancing photos. If it had been a photo contest my submissions would never have made it. My SO calls me a mafiosa with a camera (lots of kneecapping and ear amputating). lol

Yes, the County Fair thing had some problems. When I first found out about it, I thought it was instead of the photo contest, so I was kinda disappointed - I always enjoy choosing my photos for the contest. But then I decided it was actually cool that non-photographers would have an easier time competing, even though I wouldn't be able to enter many categories (not having a barn or being a canner, etc.). Then, voting was really confusing (and again disappointing) because it was obvious that not everyone's pictures were of their OWN barns, vegetables, etc. - I could have entered a lot more categories if I hadn't followed that rule - I'm NOT accusing anyone of cheating, the rules weren't clear.

A few suggestions for next year:

1). Maybe the Fair could be announced on the individual/regional forums? I'm not sure when/where the Fair was announced but I almost missed the opportunity to enter anything. At least announce it way in advance for those who don't check in every day.
2). Make it clear that the SUBJECT of a County Fair submission needs to be the entrant's own - other pretty pictures should be saved for for the Photo Contest. Maybe ask for a specific description of the item so voters can be more sure the entry is "legit" (I know, it has to be mostly an honor system).
3). The obvious - make the dates clear - I second the suggestions mentioned above of a countdown timer and ending at 11:59.