T.S.


Hey Bit and Randy, as mentioned many time, you guys have done a great job with this.
 
I hadn't voted yet.  I did narrow it down to about 8 but got tired, and haven't had the chance to get back to it.
 
What I'm wondering is when the voting ends?  I'd still like to pick the ones I think are best.
 
T.S.

Thanks, T.S.  As you see, there's still lots of time to get votes in.  So be sure to make the time to settle on your votes - Like with the other guys on this thread, it's much appreciated that you're taking the vote so seriously.

REMINDER - It really is OK to go through the list just listening to the first 5 or 10 seconds - You can easily narrow your list down to a few from just doing that.  It sounds harsh, after all the time the contestants spent on these to only listen to a few seconds - but them's the harsh realities that exist in the cold, cruel world.

Once you have your small group of "bests"---give them a longer listen, and then send in your choices.

Not all the contestants have even voted yet!_-Oh my--Let's get on this folks.  We went through a very rough patch with this contest, but we can recover - but only with your help.  Please set aside a little bit of time to help out with this event.

Randy B.

nprime


I admit I was inclined to not vote again after the original debacle. Then I thought about all the time and effort these people had put in, and the time I spent listening, and I thought it would be a shame not to vote.

C'mon everyone! Like Randy says, a lot of the entries will not get you to listen for more than a few seconds, so you go through them faster than you think. I found about 1/3 of them to be worth a good hard listen all the way through. The really good ones definitely stand out. I'd say about a dozen of them were close contenders. To me, one stood out above the rest, but YMMV.

Thank you so much for the post, nprime.  I think it's safe to say that you're speaking for a number of people who voted the first time around - The fun of the contest seemed to have just gotten sucked out when the first poll failed.  It takes a little bit of effort to get over that feeling, and your thought process is exactly what's needed to move on--To think of the time and effort so many people have put in to this.

Good advice on how you can actually narrow the list down fairly fast.  If an MP3 is not impressing you after a few seconds, why sit there bored, feeling like you have to listen to the whole thing?  Push that Next button on the MP3 player and move on.

One more thing about the previous poll - It was really helpful when one of the contestants reported how he'd accidentally managed to vote for himself several times.  He thought the vote wasn't taking - and he has a vision challenge, which of course made it harder to figure out.  Then he realized he was able to vote over and over--He proved his point to me in real time, voting for himself several more times, and I watched the poll reflect his voting instantly.  By the end of it, his entry was in the #1 slot with a huge number of votes - By that point, he couldn't remember how many extra times he'd voted for himself.  It would've been impossible to just make a note of how many votes to erase from his entry--AND there was no way to remove votes once they were cast - You could either erase ALL of them at once, or leave things as they were.

It was a tangled mess.  There was no choice but to start over.

So pLease everyone, take pity on us, and consider the crap we went through with that faulty first poll.  Right now, it looks like less than 1/4 of the original voters have sent their votes in again.  ------------

Randy B.

bramwell


Okay,  this may be a dumb question to some of you, however, it has always been an issue for me.  Is there a way to listen to the mp3's without downloading them all?  For me, whatever mp3 I want to listen to anywhere on the interweb, I have do completely download them.  Is there a way to stream them instead?
 
Thanks
Dave

--What?- Don't the MP3 players at the site work for you?-- The list of MP3s on the alternate page listed at the site should also stream for you.

I usually need to download MP3s before listening also, but not when there's an MP3 player like at the site--

Get back to me on this-- I don't understand why those players wouldn't be working for you.  I can listen to a few seconds of each one, then use the Next arrow to keep going through the whole list with no downloading.

Randy B.

bramwell


Hey Randy,
    Thanks for the reply.  I went to the page and looked.  Lo and behold, I could finally see the little numbers on the bottom left corner of the players.  Each time I went to the page, I could use the players, but had no idea which one was which because, for me, the numbers in the corners are very unobtrusive.  Once you pointed out that they are actually streaming, I finally saw the numbers.  So thanks.
  As for the alternate page, they do not stream for me.  I have to download them to listen to them.  I really didn't want to download 72 files in order to listen to a little from each one.
 
Thanks again,
 
Dave

THANKs for getting back to me so soon, Dave - You really had me concerned.  OK--So the MP3 players Do work - the numbers of the entries weren't clear.  Hmmm, I'll go see if I can go make them more obvious or something.

On the alternate page, you have to download.  OK, but you don't need that alternate page now that you know how the MP3 players work.  --So, just use those!

Randy B.

Sorry to cause you concern, 
    I can now stream with no problem on the front page.  However, the alternate page doesn't stream. (which now does not matter since I can stream on the front page).
 
I really didn't mean to cause you such consternation.  Everything is fine.
 
Thanks
 
Dave

so .. bitflipper and randy... you saying the zillion clicks I did on mine are not gonna count?  I stayed up for 7 days clicking, I now have clicksyndrome that a dr is trying to find a cure for, my right hand is frozen in the shape of someone holdng a mouse, I went thru a lot of sleepless days and nights to do that, please reconsider 

You should have googled for an online service that will do the clicking for you. Thousands of barefoot children are chained in a windowless basement in Indonesia, their little clicker-fingers bandaged and bloodied, clicking away on behalf of cruel Chinese spammers and lazy rich Americans. This is a well-known fact, because I read about it on the internet.

bump.

Voting continues until Sept 1, 10 days.  Enough time to get a larger voting sampling, and the larger the group of people voting, the more fair the outcome will be.

Bitflipper is doing a great job with the email voting, and he's doing everything he can to make sure the system isn't abused.  Having you vote will help out immensely, helping to dilute any ballot-stuffing multiple votes which could theoretically still get through.

Hope you all send your choices in to the special contest email addy soon.

orchestralshootout at hotmail dot com.

Randy B.

Hi Randy/Dave

You should have my entries by now.

I had a little trouble listening to the MP3's on the main page, for some reason they kep on stuttering in & out, then jumping 2 or 3 down the list. The files on the alternate site streamed perfectly.

Can you confirm you've got my entry please, as I go on holiday from tomorrow (Monday)

Follow up - Bristol - I just now checked the Sent folder in my email, and found the confirmation email I sent to you the day your MP3 arrived.  I thanked you for the two emails you sent.  You'll recall you sent one with the attachments, then thought of more technical info you wanted me to include on your info page.

All received, acknowledged and posted at the Shootout site since before the deadline.

If you have any questions, send me another email.  I just now sent one to you.

Randy B.

bitflipper

Can you confirm you've got my entry please, as I go on holiday from tomorrow (Monday)

I sent you a reply to your vote email.

As did I on the same day the entry was sent to me, and the MP3 was up at the site later that day.

Randy B.

Well...   I've gone from 23, down to 15, and now down to 10.    Hopefully this week I can make the final cut...    :)
 

jsaras


I didn't know that the results were being tallied in real-time online.

They aren't, jsaras.  Steve was just reporting, like some other folks have, about how carefully he's making his voting decision.  It's great!--actually taking time with it, and wanting their votes to count.  But the results aren't being "tallied in real-time online"--Not quite sure how he had that impression.

Randy B.

OK, I went to the Orchestral Shootout site and submitted my 3 picks using the form that poped up when I clicked on "click here to send in the list of your 3 favorites."

I hope I did this correct and my votes get tallied.

I have to say there was one entry that was funny as heck!!! That participant should get a prize for the most hilarious entry! LOL When this is over, I'll say which one it was.

Cya all around.

Thanks for taking up the slack left after the first poll fell apart, Bitflipper.

And now I guess I'm understanding your post better now jsaras - You thought Stevec was talking about entry numbers-?  He's saying he narrowed his choices down to 25 choices, then 10 choices, and this week he'll making his final cut.  He's taking the voting very seriously, and he's much appreciated.  Certainly more appreciated than anyone who discovered with the first poll that on some computers one could click Vote over and over to boost one's own entry.

I guess it all depends on the state of mind you're in when reading a post like that.

Randy B.