Ok this TOTM has a dark side. Because we are sure that the voting was manipulated the winner of this month is Tira.
Congratulations to her, a well deserved victory
It is just sad. I don't want to play detective from now on to make sure that nobody here is cheating. We will think about the consequences in the Team Forum. That is all I can say now, please don't ask for how I found it out and please don't start a flame war here against cheaters. And please don't make any suspicions.
Congratulations Tira and a big thank you to all authors for their effort!
I'm just here to confirm that there have been three illegitimate votes for the "Auntie" tease. We'll do our best to find out what happened and we'll keep you informed. Thanks for your support and congratulations to the real Winner, Miss Tira.
From what I can tell so far, the cheater has NOT been the author of the tease, but an overzealous fan.
Can't believe someone was cheating for me... i didn't even vote myself, thinking it's not fair to vote when you're in the contest (if i had done this, there'd have been a draw... maybe i really should have done it this time )
And congratulations to Miss Tira, her tease really deserved the first prize.
Seeing as the vote was close even if you dicount the supposed illegitamate votes, surely the only fair democratic answer would be to hold a re vote between the aunties tease n tiras tease, once the voting system has been secured against tampering.
I suggest this as the public are taking the people who runs this sites word for it that there were fraudulant votes cast. As the vote would still have been close to call even if illegitamate votes are discounted surely the only truely open and honest method would be to hold a re vote.
This would also extend the excitement of a really close months competition, and i feel it would be a better way to crown a champion of what has probably been the best months teases collectively, rather than to have such a hotly contested competition end in such a contraversial and disappointing circumstance where the mods have to award a winner by default.
JD wrote:once the voting system has been secured against tampering.
Our system is as secure as an Internet vote can be, short of asking for photocopies of your passports. Which is why we caught and corrected this particular cheating attempt.
Cheating - as sad as it is - is a part of life. If we ever catch an author cheating for his or her own tease, they are of course out of the race. In this case, there won't be a re-vote because the end result is exactly correct and all a re-vote would do is give the cheater a chance to improve his or her technique.
