Need votes please
- Thread starter AAH
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #17
Voting is over and you can see by my below correspondence with the Bendigo Advertiser how things went.
http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/3545891/light-up-your-home-christmas-lights-map/?cs=164
Re: Bendigo Advertiser Light Up Your Home Competition
Alan H
to Reception
Hi Astrid
Could you forward this to all who may have some interest in it.
I did a drive by a little while ago to check out the winner of the lights comp in the day time. It's a bit hard to tell how many lights won the comp as the owner of the house appeared to be out adding to the 10 sets that looked to be in the front yard. I really think the Addy should send the photographer out tonight and get some snaps to show that $100, an hour or so in the front yard and some time voting on the Addy website is all that is required to win the comp. Maybe send out a reporter too and get comments from the 1000 or so cars that will clog his street tonight to see the winning house. As someone who put in well over 100 hours decorating his yard, spends the best part of 50 hours out the front handing out 1000s of candy canes and has maybe $10,000 in lights up I am again disgusted at the absolute shambles that the Addy has allowed the Christmas Light comp to be. I am sufficiently disgusted that I have spent the last hour debating on pulling my lights down, selling them off and never doing a display again. I really hope that the 1000's of people who visit Esler St tonight will vent their frustration at the Addy, maybe the "winner" and potentially let the source of the holiday know how screwed over the people of Bendigo were by the shambles that the comp was again.
My single hope is that of the 1000's of car that visit Esler St some will travel the extra couple of km out to see my display.
Alan
P.S. The link on the website says
Light up your home | Christmas lights map
UPDATED: See the winner now!
As there is no actual photo of house number 3 the Addy had better organise that photographer I mentioned earlier.
On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 4:25 PM, Reception Bendigoadvertiser <reception.bendigoadvertiser@fairfaxmedia.com.au> wrote:
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your email, I've forwarded it through to Ashley who is doing the online story/Christmas lights side of things.
Regards,
Astrid
?Kind Regards
Classifieds
Address: 67 - 71 Williamson St, Bendigo 3550 / PO Box 61 Bendigo, Vic 3552
Phone: 03 5434 4433
Email: reception.bendigoadvertiser@fairfaxmedia.com.au
On 14 December 2015 at 16:22, Alan H wrote:
Hi Astrid (or whoever gets the message)
It's great to see that the voting this year is in an easy to get to link from the Addy website (at the moment). I am however sad that it was 2:30pm when it became available but I am even sadder still that it appears that anyone who feels like voting more than once can site there voting for a display all day every day.
Alan
On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Reception Bendigoadvertiser <reception.bendigoadvertiser@fairfaxmedia.com.au> wrote:
Hi Alan,
I tried calling but couldn't get through to you.
Thanks for your entry into our Light Up Your Home Competition.
Just letting you know that we have a poster here for your collection, your poster number is 8.
We are now located at 67 - 71 Williamson St, next to Boltons.
Thanks
Astrid
Kind Regards
Classifieds
http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/3545891/light-up-your-home-christmas-lights-map/?cs=164
Re: Bendigo Advertiser Light Up Your Home Competition
Alan H
to Reception
Hi Astrid
Could you forward this to all who may have some interest in it.
I did a drive by a little while ago to check out the winner of the lights comp in the day time. It's a bit hard to tell how many lights won the comp as the owner of the house appeared to be out adding to the 10 sets that looked to be in the front yard. I really think the Addy should send the photographer out tonight and get some snaps to show that $100, an hour or so in the front yard and some time voting on the Addy website is all that is required to win the comp. Maybe send out a reporter too and get comments from the 1000 or so cars that will clog his street tonight to see the winning house. As someone who put in well over 100 hours decorating his yard, spends the best part of 50 hours out the front handing out 1000s of candy canes and has maybe $10,000 in lights up I am again disgusted at the absolute shambles that the Addy has allowed the Christmas Light comp to be. I am sufficiently disgusted that I have spent the last hour debating on pulling my lights down, selling them off and never doing a display again. I really hope that the 1000's of people who visit Esler St tonight will vent their frustration at the Addy, maybe the "winner" and potentially let the source of the holiday know how screwed over the people of Bendigo were by the shambles that the comp was again.
My single hope is that of the 1000's of car that visit Esler St some will travel the extra couple of km out to see my display.
Alan
P.S. The link on the website says
Light up your home | Christmas lights map
UPDATED: See the winner now!
As there is no actual photo of house number 3 the Addy had better organise that photographer I mentioned earlier.
On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 4:25 PM, Reception Bendigoadvertiser <reception.bendigoadvertiser@fairfaxmedia.com.au> wrote:
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your email, I've forwarded it through to Ashley who is doing the online story/Christmas lights side of things.
Regards,
Astrid
?Kind Regards
Classifieds
Address: 67 - 71 Williamson St, Bendigo 3550 / PO Box 61 Bendigo, Vic 3552
Phone: 03 5434 4433
Email: reception.bendigoadvertiser@fairfaxmedia.com.au
On 14 December 2015 at 16:22, Alan H wrote:
Hi Astrid (or whoever gets the message)
It's great to see that the voting this year is in an easy to get to link from the Addy website (at the moment). I am however sad that it was 2:30pm when it became available but I am even sadder still that it appears that anyone who feels like voting more than once can site there voting for a display all day every day.
Alan
On Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 12:43 PM, Reception Bendigoadvertiser <reception.bendigoadvertiser@fairfaxmedia.com.au> wrote:
Hi Alan,
I tried calling but couldn't get through to you.
Thanks for your entry into our Light Up Your Home Competition.
Just letting you know that we have a poster here for your collection, your poster number is 8.
We are now located at 67 - 71 Williamson St, next to Boltons.
Thanks
Astrid
Kind Regards
Classifieds
Karob
Let there be Light!
Alan
I feel your frustration, the lack of a photo of the house when announcing the winner is true quilt of the shambles of the competition.
Every comp that is from a peoples choice is free to be tampered with. As you clearly state in your previous email to the Addy, the ability to vote multiple times by clicking a button is a joke.
To save dignity they need to find a better way of running a fair competition.
In the meantime Alan let your lights shine bright and hopefully in sync, let the 1000's of people who come past and admire, respect and comment on your lights be your prize.
I feel your frustration, the lack of a photo of the house when announcing the winner is true quilt of the shambles of the competition.
Every comp that is from a peoples choice is free to be tampered with. As you clearly state in your previous email to the Addy, the ability to vote multiple times by clicking a button is a joke.
To save dignity they need to find a better way of running a fair competition.
In the meantime Alan let your lights shine bright and hopefully in sync, let the 1000's of people who come past and admire, respect and comment on your lights be your prize.
I reckon if sites dont have a proper voting system..
then why not make a webpage script, that will keep voting for you every 5minutes..
hey fair is fair
then why not make a webpage script, that will keep voting for you every 5minutes..
hey fair is fair
BundyRoy
Dedicated elf
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2014
- Messages
- 1,026
Whilst I understand Alan's frustration, I would think that no matter how the voting system is set up for a popularity type contest, he who has the most friends will win. This is part of the reason why people on this site ask us to vote for them (which I did, and multiple times for Alan). I don't think many "normal" people that look at lights could be bothered voting unless they have a vested interest, ie they know one of the contestants.
Keep the chin up Alan. We know it is good to get the recognition through a win but it's not the main reason you do it. From my limited time with synchronised lights a lot of people tend to think you just buy it set up (including the programming). They don't realise the time that is put in and hence you don't get any credit for effort.
Keep the chin up Alan. We know it is good to get the recognition through a win but it's not the main reason you do it. From my limited time with synchronised lights a lot of people tend to think you just buy it set up (including the programming). They don't realise the time that is put in and hence you don't get any credit for effort.
lizardking
IT IS STILL ALL BENS FAULT
Alan i see your frustration from both sides as a lighting Technician and a lover of christmas lights the voting is rigged as brad's christmaslights has had the same problem the same with steve and we see it on the gold coast also those with the most lights wins they dont need to make sense , hell they dont even need to turn on and off please from someone who looks forward to having 1/2 the display you have, dont give up due to political crap keep going for the fact you love the lights, after the first 2 weeks of having 1 or 2 cars a night drive by and you can see my display from atleast 2 klms away i was going to pull mine down mid season but then we had a few people turn up and watching the look on the kids faces made it all worth it i say tell em to stick it where it dont fit and bigger and better next year
the grinch
I guess I could use a little social interaction
Hey allan yes am agreed with you mate have seen the favoritism happen here in s.a over the years . Too me and sure many other members you are absolutely the winner if some of us could have a small portion of your knowledge and expertise wow . Chin up mate . Oh and hoping the threat of pulling lights down and never having a display again was just anger towards the newspaper people as what would all of us do without AAH . You still win in my mind
- Thread starter
- #23
I was/am seriously frustrated. I have never minded losing to a good static display but over the last 10 years that I have been in the local lighting comp there has been some absolute shambles as far as what has been called the "winner". As I have always known that the comp doesn't necessarily match public opinion and can be swayed easily I have always lived in hope but with little expectation of a win. Seeing a house that quite literally had little more than 5 ornaments and a string of lights or 2 on a front yard of about 30m2 absolutely gutted me. I was quite serious about pulling up my lights and pulling the plugs on lights entirely. Up until about 8pm last night I was contemplating whether to turn the lights on. If it wasn't for the fact that there are people who know my display and expect it to be up I quite possibly would have started pulling down my display yesterday.
Without coverage in the paper/website I get little traffic as I am right on the outside fringe of Bendigo and I get little passing traffic and very, very few walk ins (none this year so far). Our biggest night other than Christmas eve was a couple of years ago when the winner was a "local". His street is about 800m from mine and you can see our house from the turnoff so all of the thousands who headed to look at his display headed to ours as well.
As far as continuing to decorate I am still in a mixed mind. I had a call from my father-in-law yesterday afternoon and he had an inflatable and some other stuff knocked off during the day. He is 500m away from me. This morning on my way to the shop I noticed that the lady down the corner from me (400m away) has a sign up saying "who took my lights" and it looks like all of her rope lights have been knocked off.
We did have a fair night for traffic last night with maybe 100 cars, 1 bus and 3 mini buses. This made it a fairly good night but less than a tenth of what I expect the "winner" had.
Thanks for the kind words in the forum, from the phone call from bjpc2716 and from David_AVD on skype. I am still gutted but I am still lighting up the night sky (a lot).
Alan
Without coverage in the paper/website I get little traffic as I am right on the outside fringe of Bendigo and I get little passing traffic and very, very few walk ins (none this year so far). Our biggest night other than Christmas eve was a couple of years ago when the winner was a "local". His street is about 800m from mine and you can see our house from the turnoff so all of the thousands who headed to look at his display headed to ours as well.
As far as continuing to decorate I am still in a mixed mind. I had a call from my father-in-law yesterday afternoon and he had an inflatable and some other stuff knocked off during the day. He is 500m away from me. This morning on my way to the shop I noticed that the lady down the corner from me (400m away) has a sign up saying "who took my lights" and it looks like all of her rope lights have been knocked off.
We did have a fair night for traffic last night with maybe 100 cars, 1 bus and 3 mini buses. This made it a fairly good night but less than a tenth of what I expect the "winner" had.
Thanks for the kind words in the forum, from the phone call from bjpc2716 and from David_AVD on skype. I am still gutted but I am still lighting up the night sky (a lot).
Alan
Chin up Alan. It is a shame about the shambles of that competition, but it seems to happen with many of them.
Don't let it spoil putting up lights for yourself and others to enjoy.
The thefts are a worry of course. We've not had any issues in our area in recent years touch wood.
Don't let it spoil putting up lights for yourself and others to enjoy.
The thefts are a worry of course. We've not had any issues in our area in recent years touch wood.
I suffered the same issues in the past but came to realize why I was shunned by the competitions and papers even though I was constantly told my display was the best by far in the Illawarra.
The reality is that most Christmas light competitions are sponsored by the local Christmas shops and for them to vote on a winner that is DIY does not give their products the exposure they want, so they only focus on displays that will showcase more of what they sell rather than on the actual display and content. The only reason they sponsor these competitions is for exposure and sales, so you are not a good model for them to showcase their junk.
The reality is that most Christmas light competitions are sponsored by the local Christmas shops and for them to vote on a winner that is DIY does not give their products the exposure they want, so they only focus on displays that will showcase more of what they sell rather than on the actual display and content. The only reason they sponsor these competitions is for exposure and sales, so you are not a good model for them to showcase their junk.
the grinch
I guess I could use a little social interaction
Yes the theft and malicious damage is a real put off disgusting . We had instances over the years a lot of our community stopped putting up lights here because. Had wires chopped reindeers thrown down the street randomly 2 attempts at stealing dancing santa first try my wife (crazy light lady) chased them in her car and retrieved him after that he was chained and padlocked to the sleigh someone actually came with a trailer and tried but realized was locked and dropped him and fled unfortunately was unable to get a rego number .luckily hasnt been any trouble for a few years now. Lot of trouble was teenage drunken party's now they seem to have stopped obviously grown up and moved away .but it is appalling how any person can do such things and I understand how it feels . But when you see the smiles on the faces and the compliments and xmas cheer it makes it worthwile.