This might seem petty

But it matters to me.

I had posted a while about, about how .I entered "Cuddle Time", a pic of Loki cuddling his toy cow, in the RedBubble "Give Us a Hug" contest.

I took a screen cap 2 days after the voting had been closed and the tally was done.

Here is the link to the administrators Forum

I got many kudos and congrats for winning days after the contest closed.
Am only posting public congrats, will not be posting private comments. There were 17 private Congrats right up until 10 or so days ago.
LJ posts:
[info]stephbg at 2008-07-01 15:34 (local) (Link)
IP Address: 117.102.144.25
It is indeed an astonishingly cute picture. Congratulations!
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[info]mynxii at 2008-07-01 15:57 (local) (Link)
IP Address: 203.62.236.34
Mushroom cloud of cute indeed :P

*hugs*

Congratulations :)

RedBubble posts

Matt Mawson, 22 days ago <-- this one important, as he was 1st Runner Up. And now his is the 'Winning Photograph"
This is acutely cute! Congratulations on the “Give us a hug” win, Sandra.

Barbara Morrison, 22 days ago
Congrats on winning the Hug comp! Hands down winner

Kathie Nichols, 20 days ago
Congrats on winning the Hugs Challenge….so cute!!!!!!!!!

 

A friend of mine went to visit the "Winners Page" to show her Mom, and guess what?

Sometime during the intervening 2 weeks since I had visited the Winners Page, my winning photograph is no longer the winning photograph.

I questioned the administrators about this, and I was told "It takes a few hours for the votes to be tallied". Excuse me?  Since when? It takes seconds to count these (as it had in other challenges) because it's computerised.  Even if I agreed with the few hours, 2 frigging DAYS?  And then for 2 weeks afterward Cuddle Time was listed as the winner, and then some mysterious computer hiccup 'fixes' incorrect count?

I am angry, and I feel cheated. "Contest Fixing" comes to mind.