Hoping for some Veg Fan help!

[DavidT]

Am I mistaken, or did Stanwell really lose over 3000 votes?

[Lesley Jay]

Well over 3000 votes.

[DavidT]

That`s what I thought.

[Willow10]

You guys are great!

I have messaged David but will also post here .....



It's been quite a day!

Apparently the voting site was hijacked by what they're calling a 'spam-bot', whatever that might be. Sounds very futuristic!

Our concern is that the number of votes removed has been huge. I don't know the actual number but we can all see what a big drop there has been across the board.

Stanwell Fields campaigned to get BAA on board supporting us and up to 1000 staff there vote for us daily. We have messaged the website designers to find out if in fact they have removed votes from the same IP address, as if this is the case, regardless of how many BAA staff vote for us, as they may probably all have the same company IP address, only 1 vote will count each day!

We have several other Heathrow based companies also supporting us, voting in the same way, as I suspect the other schools do too. I think there may be a serious glitch in the voting system!

We're waiting on a reply which is promised tomorrow and I'll certainly let you know!

[Lesley Jay]

I've voted again - come on everyone please vote!!

This is a link to an article on a local news site about the voting.

Get Schools Growing website attacked by spammers - Communities - Egham

I could send out a mass email to all our members asking everyone to vote...........

[Chilli P]

I have just voted again they are quite abit down on votes.

Lesley I think your idea is good would get more people voting hopefully

[DavidT]

I`ve just voted again. I`ve also left a comment on that newspaper site. Why has Stanwell lost so many votes and Buckland very few.

[Willow10]

Mass email!

Thank you! You guys really are amazing

Well unfortunately (or should that be predictably?) I haven't heard a dicky bird from the website people today.

We've fielded a couple of messages from supporters saying that although they voted this morning the counter never moved. Another glitch? We're not sure.

The IP address issue is still of concern to us, but we took a call today from the woman at BAA who has been organising their daily email to all staff to vote and she tells us they are still with us and will continue to vote, which is fantastic. (If our suspicions about the IP logging system are correct, they're going to owe us a lot of votes back!!)

I will let you know as soon as we hear any more news.

On a brighter note - the vote counts were taken at 10pm last night and again at 8am this morning. Stanwell Fields had the largest increase overnight.
Today between 8am and 6pm we again had the largest increase

This has certainly bolstered the staff after quite a difficult day explaining to the children why we were in 3rd place again, but we are all as determined as ever, big and little people, to keep fighting.

Again, thank you all so much for every vote you give us, it is really appreciated!

[DavidT]

Willow, start using the local media. Why have you lost so many votes, and Buckland so few.?

[Chilli P]

Voted again

[Lesley Jay]

Thanks for voting Ashley - maybe you can get everyone at Greenhouse Sensation to vote aswell??? Please!!

[Lesley Jay]

I have just found a site that has the voting scores for the schools the day before the organisers removed so many votes from Stanwells Field School. As you can see Stanwells Field School lost about 5000 votes.

Votes on 23rd March.

Buckland Primary School
6316 votes (30.4% of total cast)

Kingscroft Junior School
451 votes (2.2%)

Manorcroft Primary School
628 votes (3%)

Shortwood Infant School
146 votes (0.7%)

Stanwell Fields School
7063 votes (34%)

Hythe Primary School
6122 votes (29.4%)

[Willow10]

Hello, you wonderful people!

Still no word back from the website designers, although I'll give them the benefit of the doubt as it's the weekend. Hopefully tomorrow. We have asked them a *lot* of questions.

There are still voters from other websites reporting that when they vote our counter is not moving, or they are being told they have already voted within the last 24 hours when they haven't, so glitches are still apparent on the vote site.

Those stats make interesting reading, Lesley Jay. Would love to know where you found them, they may come in handy. We have gone through the newspaper article again and come to the definite conclusion that all our votes from BAA have been removed.

It states that 800 votes were being added over a period of time. Now given that BAA did a mass company email for us every day to 1400 people, it's entirely possible, in fact probable that 800 staff went online there and then and put in their vote, and unfortunately because they all have the same company IP ddress, it has looked like 'spam' and all votes have therefore been removed.

This is another question we have asked the organisers. If they can confirm this, then really we are owed a lot of votes back. But I honestly can't see them doing that now. They would, in effect have to admit their mistakes and that sure aint good for business!

We are down but not out. We are aware that we might not win this now, but the kids are still as positive as ever and want to try so we're still working hard.
2 of us were out on the streets in a nearby town cavassing for votes yesterday, and we are still, over a set period of time, getting the largest increase in the votes.

Again, all your support is appreciated so much, and as soon as I hear anything new I'll let you all know!



"Never quit or give up until the choice or decision is no longer yours!" <--- our new motto

[Lesley Jay]

Here you go Willow, a link to the page that has the stats. I fully expect these stats to be deleted by the organisers which is why I copied and pasted them.

The Get Schools Growing competition is heating up - Communities - Stanwell

[Willow10]

Thanks Lesley Jay

A Facebook voter from Sweden asked an interesting question today, one we hadn't actually thought of - if Buckland had over 5000 vaild and genuine votes left after they were changed, that means since the competition started they must have been averaging about 2000 votes per week.

Where are their 2000 votes for this week, since the number change? They should be in the 7000s by now and yet they are absolutely nowhere near. Have their voters deserted them, or were they never there in the first place? Or have all same IP address votes been allowed for them but not for Stanwell Fields?

Curiouer and curiouser!

[Willow10]

I've had an official response :


Thank you for your message.

Due to the nature of the online competition, to stop multiple votes we have had to put restrictions including the one you mentioned onto the voting system.

Some of the schools are doing fantastically well and are spreading the message far and... wide to get as many votes as possible to win the competition, despite the restrictions.

I can also clarify that all votes from different email address, whether or not they have the same IP address will be counted so I hope that puts your mind at ease.

I do hope that you continue to support your chosen school with your vote every day but if you have any more concerns please let me know.

Thanks,

Luc Pestille
Web Designer


-------------------------------

Unfortunately none of my specific questions have been answered. Part of me didn't expect them to as that would be akin to them admitting their own mistakes, which I'm sure they'll never do.

We still have people all over reporting they can't vote for anything up to (so far) 52 hours, and some of those that can are not seeing the vote counter move, just being told they have already voted within 24 hours, which they haven't.

I'm guessing the large companies we had involved all had the same email address at the end, so those votes were taken away and are now blocked, even the votes from the teachers at our own school as we all have the same school email address.

On the plus side, between 8am and 5.30pm today we got, once again, the largest increase by quite a bit and have made up a lot of ground, heading for 2nd place

[judimac]

I voted. I shall do so every day.

[julian]

Have voted for you. Good luck!

[ian digs]

I've now voted, thanks for the Email update. Anything that gets kids interested in growing their own gets my vote.
My daughter Holly (7 yrs old) and her class mates all visited my allotment last week before they broke up for Easter and planted various salad seeds. They will be coming back over the next few weeks to check on there progress. Our committee did a fantastic job and gave them a tour of all the plots and spent ages showing them around and explaining all about growing veg. One child actually thought veg was "made in a factory"

[julian]

I must say the voting seems poorly organised. The same IP can vote more than once, as long as the email addresses are different. It would be easy to abuse that wouldn't it?

Ian digs, our allotment are useless when it comes to encouraging people like that. Wish ours had the same spirit. Our daughter is 8 weeks old - has already been up in the pram a dozen times to help carry back the winter veg, and plant seeds. Cannot wait until she is running round 'helping' us