We have been picking up some conversation threads about how the GDC event is starting to strain people’s patience. These are coming from innocent bystanders who came to know about this event from their ‘friends’, and have not been able to shake them loose, since They hear from these friends on e-mail, on chat, on feeds, scraps, twitter and text – “please, please, please vote for me. I have a whopping 789 already but I really need some more to come back on page one. So, if you have not voted for me, do it now” The requests just keep coming and coming and coming! Then someone started to murmur about the event on the grapevine and how it is helping spam. We had to politely intervene. Team GDC does not do spam! When we explained our policies and how the onus was really on the user of the GDC platform, the response was heartening – quote verbatim: You are right; the platforms are being misused, through no fault of yours. Or at least, the fault is really negligible. I am happy that someone is doing interesting stuff in this space. In fact, I was impressed enough with the site design and added Experience Commerce on delicious, quite a few days back. So, don’t worry, I’d be the last one to start out a negative campaign (I confess to thinking about a post titled ‘When viral becomes spam’ but that won’t have anything against you guys) Keep up the good work, and all the best So what is happening here is that many of your friends/colleagues are indeed tiring of your ‘vote for me’ requests, but don’t have the courage to tell you on your face. We logged over 20,000 votes yesterday and the requests are still swelling, with just a day to go for the closure. So if you are planning to work the phones and chat and text and twitter tonight, for that last mile push, just pause and think about it. Are YOU spamming your friend? This is the ethics and etiquette I spoke about in a previous comment. I sent one mail and that was it. Besides that I just put it on twitter, facebook, orkut, my own website, blog and on multiple websites where I wrote reviews on the Cedia test drive. If people wanted to vote they do if not well it’s there choice. Some of my friends voted multiple times using multiple ids I very politely asked them to not go on doing it infact if given a chance I would actually go ahead and remove the multiples it’s embarrassing I guess one does get carried away but then netiquette is all about being restrained and careful about what you say, do, write…. you never know when it’ll come back to bite you and where. Oh and I am totally pissed at these fellows who are part of the challenge and knew my id… they went ahead and voted for themselves using my id and those of other “friends” and sent us a mail asking us to click the confirmation mail…. i mean are you nuts or what it’s like borrowing ur friends car and asking him for permission when you’re half way to the moon….. That’s exactly what I did… sent a mail, msn IM, and sms to everyone once, and didn’t bother them again, those who were really caring, did vote for me and rest, I didn’t question. and to those who are really close to me, I called up and convinced them to vote and this is how the spirit of great driving challenge will live… Few more hours and the truth will prevail…. I just can’t wait… I am excited now… in fact, I have already packed my bags… jst waiting for a call from TGDC… hahaha, just kidding… On a serious note, I have faith in TGDC team and I am sure they’ll respect the couple who have played a fair game, who have brought good name to Mitsubishi and the family…. so, team TGDC… keep going with the good work!!! Thanks and Regards, Totally agree with this!! Being participants we can relate to the desperation of getting as many votes from any where possible… But spamming might actually irritate your dear friend who would never ever help u out… We would never go to such an extent for any benefit. In fact when on the receiving end, many a times we don’t even open mails which start with a “FW:” Actually TGDC should discourage this… dont know what could be the best way to do so… but this actually gives a negative popularity to the event on the whole… Ideally just collecting Votes should not qualify for one to win!! Though we know there are other criteria as well, but Popularity and votes is clearly understood to be the single most important criteria for selection (atleast it appears to be) for which people are going to such an extent… A better way could have been the ratio of Votes per day of existence in the competition… Also, the number of attempts made in terms of the number of times the “Collect Vote” or “Collect Testimonials” is clicked should be considered… (As a deterrent- higher this number lower is your qualification score) ..Though it would not eradicate spamming, but at least ensure that regular bombardment of such mails is reduced… But the feasibility & implementation of such a thing could be a big challenge in itself which experts know the best Sandip, I agree with you. I just spoke with my wife who was very disheartened to see our profile at 25th place in popularity and proposed that call/mail/chat friends again. It is obvious what is happening in profile above us but do we want to do the same? I explained to her and I want to share the same with everyone. If this has turned in to a rat race with vote factory approach then i refuse to be part of the crowd. I think I have already bugged everyone enough in my friend circle, relatives, facebook, orkut, Intranet, linked-in that now I don’t want to bug them once again with our calls, mails and chat. The good part is we really know who are good friends are, what they think about us!! It is heartening to read what they have to write about us and I feel proud of it. I guess we have given it a best shot and that is all that matters, rest it’s time to leave this to Jury and relax! Cheers, Hi Rishi, The same thing happene with me when I started with second age, went to 3rd, then 4th and as of today 7th page. I felt very bad, because I knew I have very few friends who actually live on e-mail ids or internet, but still I tried every bit, reached everyone but did not approached anyone twice. Besides those who are really close to me and I knew they were not troubled… The way people were going up on their votes, you know, I have already expressed my views… Infact, for last four days, I haven’t asked a single person to vote. Just my partner, she at her work is geting her colleages vote. Anyways, I’ll have butterflies in my stomach, starting tomorrow. and Rishi, can you please send me a mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) , so that we can be in touch even after the contest! Regards, The numbers game can get quite crazy. After we spent 6 hours the first day on phone and online with friends asking them for votes. Several hours more on each subsequent day. We knew that we cannot just spam our friends because we need votes. Each day watching people getting hundreds of votes was a surprise. It still is, for us. We trust the jury for a fair decision about selecting the finalists. hi we present the “veterans” an offer they can t resist. we are “novices” as the application came through only on 16 th july afternoon :[ GET 2 LEGAL VOTES(SMITA & MINE) pl metion url in testimonial. wish had some political stint for the knowhow of aaccumulating the VOTE BANKS :]] wishing good luck to all. Hi Sandip, JULY 17TH: Twenty years ago today, I traveled on the Manali-Leh road on a mobike, all alone! The 1st civilian to travel without an inner line permit. TODAY, the July 17th, the contest comes to a close! Too much of Coincidences??? I just could not resist being so immodest about it! Narayan Frankly speaking I feel it’s crazy to ask someone I don’t know to vote for me. At first the excitement got over me and for a second I thought I should shoot a mail to everyone in my office—700 votes confirm. Then I thought why should a person who does not me well vote for me…I wouldn’t have. So I stuck to my friends. By the way the good thing about this challenge is that now I’m in touch with a couple of school friends with whom I lost contact. GUYS! Even if we don’t qualify for the next round we should keep in touch, since we all share the same passion. Hi guys, While i agree with most of you, I just want to ask who is really responsible for this spamming? If you will leave anything to voting, some people will spam. We all know that. I don’t understand why a challenge of this nature requires votes. It should be based on your skills and your profile. The moment you get voting into the picture, people go crazy. I sent 1 mail to all my friends and asked them to vote. We would get some 5-10 votes a day. When I saw that people had over 1700, I just gave up! Whats the point? I really feel we are qualified to do this kind of thing, but I cant be hounding people to vote for us right?! Also, isnt it unfair on people who joined later? If you have just 2-3 days and others had much more, they will obviously have more votes. To make it fair, they should have had a deadline for accepting applications and then opened voting, so that everyone gets the same number of days. I just hope the organisers are listening and reading these mails. I also hope that they be fair and consider the profile. pictures etc as much as the votes, otherwise this wont be a fair challenge at all. Sonika I will demand a commitment to excellence and to victory, and that is what life is all about…Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.. I try to do the right thing at the right time.They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing… but this is a different contingency ..!“Collect Votes” or “Collect Testimonials”..u have no other possible choice besides clicking these to make urself franchised among the 100 to be selected candidates ... Nothing can so alienate a voter from the system as backing a winning candidate..! Guys, you are right there, I was right there on the top of second page once and was very happy, cajoling my colleagues and friends to cajole their friends, etc… And then, it seemed like an whirl wind and the next day morning, when I woke up, the page structure had changed. ow, for last few days, I can’t find anyone new to ask for votes, am still bugging people to forward it to their friends. This is the first such online game show, challenge, whatever you say, where I have ever participated, that too with so much enthusiasm, as it is inline with the living life philosophy of ours. At least now, I know I have to do this route, if not 6-15th Aug in a Cedia, than at least in Ford Ikon, some time soon. Thanks for all this especially. Exactly 17 days before i had filled in my application for this contest & had received my 1st vote.After that I don’t exactly remember how many mails i have sent & how many calls we made in shear madness of getting votes.but then it was not late that i saw the madness growing all around.TGDC Blogs started flooding with those blessed or superior blogs and photo streams.& every day a new face started getting featured in the 1st most popular couple slot.Last 10 days or so this contest & this blog kept us wondering why did we apply for this in the 1st place. what were we thinking when we thought that we can stand and compete against people with DSLR’s worth more than a lakh , with people who has years of travel experiences as that of our age or with those blessed ones who create mesmerizing world of words with there writing skills. I guess we were really stupid to think that we with a prosumer cam having done couple of trips here & there with average writing skills thought that we have that “thing” in us to stand against these men… Today at 70th position or so i am not very sure about the force which is still making us dream.. Any ways Wishing ALL THE BEST FOR Regards
Page 1 of 1 pages
|
Find TGDC on     
Subscribe
TGDC on Facebook
The Great Driving Challenge on Facebook
Google Friend ConnectRecent Posts
|
||||
© 2009. Mitsubishi Cedia Sports The Great Driving Challenge.
Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Media Center | About The Contest |
Creative Agency: Contract Advertising | Digital Agency: Experience Commerce