Tournament of Pets 2008: Hey, man, what is the deal with that voting?

I wanted to take a minute to explain how voting works in Tournament of Pets 2008 and why it works that way.

 First of all, you vote simply by leaving a comment on the article of the pet you want to win that round.  The entries are posted at about the same time (the higher-ranked pet goes up first, getting a 1 or 2 minute edge.)  A warning:  if you comment that you don't like a pet, you might still end up having voted for that pet.  I try to weed those out but I'm not always successful. 

 The only voting rule is:  OWNERS CAN'T VOTE FOR THEIR OWN PETS.  So I count out any comments from the owner, although they're certainly welcome to comment.  Want to vote once?  Three times?  Three hundred times?  Go ahead.

Now, here's why  this is fair and why I did it. 

1.  All OTHER voting on Gather is simply a numbers game.  If you've got more connections, you can get them to come vote for you.  Some contestants' owners have 3,000 connections; others are new.  Allowing one vote per person rewards people who have been on Gather longer.  But allowing multiple votes measures devotion, not numbers.  If you've got one connection, but that connection really really loves your pet, you'll win. 

2.  Voting the old way took a lot of time to load.  One big comment last year was that the more comments on one article, the longer it took to load.  I waited 15 minutes to load a screen to check results.  I wanted to speed things up by having 1/2 the comments on each page. 

3.  Voting the old way took a lot of time to count:  Last year, I had to go through and read each comment and decide who they were voting for and determine whether people had commented a couple of times trying to help out the points.  It took a long long long time.  This year I'm even busier -- as you'll see if you look at my other writing, so I had to find a way to do it a little faster, because  people (including me) love Tournament of Pets (it is, after all, the World's Most Popular Competition)-- and I wanted to help out the Shaws, which brings up point four:

4.  Voting this way means more points which means more stuff for a great family.  Remember, this is for charity:  Mateo and McHale.  Two articles means more points which means more stuff for them.  I don't profit from Tournament of Pets (I do use it to advertise a little for my other writing, but I don't take the points). 

While I don't profit, these little guys do:

So thanks for bearing with me.  Now go vote 1,000 times for the pet you love today.  Then send some money to Mateo and McHale.  Or send them Brewer gear, since they're dad is (shudder) a Cubs fan.  And that's just wrong!

So by voting 2 or 3 or 17 times, you give them more stuff.  And they need it. 

You can find out more about Mateo and McHale by going to "Caring Bridge," where they have a site with photos and a journal. And you can help the Shaws with medical bills and other expenses by sending a contribution to:

Mateo and McHale Shaw Irrevocable SNT

C/O Kohler Credit Union

850 Woodlake Road Kohler, WI 53044