2009 Home Haunt of the Year

[HomeHauntersAssoc]

All,

I wanted to thank everyone for participating in our first Home Haunt of the Year contest.

I think we have learned quite a bit from the voting process.

I wanted to start this thread to get member feedback and ideas on how to improve the contests going forward. 

Please feel free to comment and start constructive discussions around the voting process and how we can improve.

Thanks,
Kevin

[darkride]

Since no one else has commented, I guess I'll start.

While I won't argue about the winners, I do think that this is not the way to handle voting. It all boils down to someone getting people to view the videos, not voting for the best/favorite haunts. Some videos already had a substantial number of views before they were even posted on this web site. The later the entry, the less likely that someone was viewed as often.

Worse, I saw some of the crude, negative comments about good haunts, before they were deleted.

Voting also depended on someone actually voting for a video and I suspect (since this was the public voting, not just members) that they were voting on the QUALITY of the VIDEO and not the haunt itself.

If someone had a lot of contacts and/or posted the link all over the web they would receive a lot of votes, while others, depending on the link on this web site, received few, or worse, were voted low to drag down their average. Remember, the public itself would be stumbling on our videos not knowing that there was a contest based on how often the video was viewed or how it was rated. Again, the public (if it rated a video at all) was probably voting on the quality of the video.

While using You Tube as a vehicle to post the videos and slide shows is not a bad idea, the bottom line is I think the voting should be limited to ONLY members of the HHA (and its sponsors) and should not be done on You Tube. Unfortunately, no matter how you do it, there will always be a difference in the quality of the photos and videos submitted, which I think does play a part in the results.

This is my opinion of course and no matter what you do SOMEONE is not going to be happy!. Trust me, I've run the DAFE survey for 9 years and hear all of the bitching when the results are released!

Thanks for all the effort you put into the group, I know it's a thankless job! :-)

Rick