I say let the admins decide themselves. it can just be a random user who's image has been submitted in the Picture and Media forum under the OFFICIAL(COLOR) threads.

dont give it a 'title' like HHR Of the Month...just pick one car, and stick it on the home page...

I havent even been to the HOMEPAGE of this site, as i dont use it. I shortcut the discussion maint topic page...

the only reason I was angry was that an adult would actually cheat to win NOTHING....you just dont get any lower than that in life. Prize or no prize, award or honor, or whatever...his 22 days on the homepage are gone...but the negative impression he left are still here.

 

I feel compelled to respond to you, Smoke Wagon, since you have made several subtle and direct accusations of “cheating” regarding my car’s votes for HHR of the month. I’m sorry you have negative feelings, but I will say here that I’m not aware of, nor did I encourage any vote shilling. The only vote I control is my own. Those who supported me included members of my car club, acquaintances who also own HHRs and others on this site who I do not know and have never met who voted for my car for one reason or another.

Actually I was very surprised to win since you received so many positive comments about your photography and presentation. I was preparing to get some new pics done to reenter after I lost and even had a congratulatory message ready to send to you. Those who supported you and posted comments were very enthusiastic and it was obvious that your car appealed to many. The prevailing sentiment seemed to be in favor of honoring a “bone stock” HHR, of which yours is an excellent example. Yes, it was a close vote and I can understand that would be frustrating to be on the short end of it. If you go through the posts again I think you’ll see that I conveyed a complimentary and encouraging tone toward you and your car right from the start. I can’t be responsible for stupid comments others may have made nor do I have any control over what people do with their memberships once they join. There’s one member of our club who has yet to post even one comment after almost three months of membership on this site. I think the only active thing she’s done on the site was to vote for me.

In retrospect, there may have been one comment I made that was out of order. In one of our WNY event planning posts just prior to the voting I told my fellow club members that my car was entered and I asked for their votes. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. We have a very enthusiastic (and growing) group and already had one of our club members earn HHR of the Month honors. I thought it would be fun to have another. I’ve also encouraged other WNY club members to enter their cars and if they do I’ll support them regardless of the competition.

All that being said, if JonyyB or any of the moderators want to discuss any of this personally with me I would more than welcome it. I really wish there would have been more than 70 people who voted so you could have won because I think you probably value this more than me. I still offer my compliments on your car and your excellent photography, and again encourage you to resubmit in the future.

 

I appreciate your stepping up and responding.
The contest means nothing to me more than a feeling of recognition...but when I felt slighted, it became more a matter of dignity, than honor.

I will say this-one of the reasons I believe people should be members for more than 30 days, or at least be active by posting on the site before being eligible to vote is so that contestants cant go out fishing for votes.

I am sure those 3 names I mentioned earlier are friends of yours, and might be part of a car club you belong to. That's fine. Their presence here(or lack there-of) serves to support my reasoning behind the rule change I am suggesting.

I firmly believe that if people are active on this site, they know when the monthly submissions are UP, and when the voting period is being held. No contestants should need to go out and 'drum up' votes...especially from inactive members.

we all know people who could stuff the ballot box per se...

I guess I just needed to get it off my chest...again, not to sound like a poor loser...I just hate seeing things like this go on month after month.

all the more reason to perhaps just let the ADMINS of this site do a random choice thing themselves...

I know it isnt right to compare one forum to another, BUT...on one car club site I frequent, they have a "car of the day"

it is chosen from the user's profile of submitted images. It is chosen randomly by the admins, and granted, a new car every day is a but much...maybe "weekly" or even monthly.

This prevents others from jumping on to their other message boards and posting "hey gang...I entered a contest. come vote for me".

I've seen it many times before...on other sites...so what's to stop it from happening here?(again?)
The bottom line is this-as long as there is a doubt, someone will feel slighted.

Doc, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I am sure if you look at things the way I showed, you would understand where I am coming from.

 

I know there are some short comings in the current system, especially when the votes are close but I do think a monthly popular vote is still the best system. If you think this is somewhat unfair, imagine how you'd feel if month after month your HHR wasn't picked by the admins and you felt it was more than deserving to win.
And anything more frequent than monthly winners loses the luster of winning. Having only 12 winners in a year gives recognition and honor to those individuals who have the most outstanding HHR's. Having weekly winners would make 52 winners in a year and that seems like too many to me. If we want everyone to be a winner, we could just have a slideshow of all the member rides on the frontpage. But I don't think that's the point of this.

 

I appreciate your reply in return, Smoke, and I do think I understand where you're coming from and the frustration you feel. I also agree with your idea to do a random featured car of the day (or week just so the selectee doesn't miss it). To be eligible you would submit a pic and then the mods would post them in random order with perhaps a "heads-up" email to the person whose car it is. if the site wanted to feature truly unique cars like some of the ones who have been Car of the Month here then perhaps another showcase could be put together for that. In any event, when 100 or fewer people vote out of almost 6000 eligible members it really doesn't make a lot of sense to put it up for a vote. Then again, if there were some more appropriate rules on eligibility for both submitting and voting perhaps it would work.

 

Nice...cooler heads prevailed!

 

yea...Chevymgr, I didnt expect to win...I have a bone stock HHR that looks like every other dark silver metallic HHR out there that is stock. I only submitted because I was new to the site, a new owner, enthusiastic about my new toy(lets face it, we ALL think our cars are tops when we first buy one)and many had suggested I put it up for a vote.

Honestly, I was surprised it was so close...it was when I started seeing what I saw, that erked me...the fact that the vote count was so close was irrelevant actually. as well as the fact that I lost...in fact in all honesty, I would have been equally disappointed had it happened the way it appeared even with 3 other entrants. I might not have kept quiet about it though. I kept quiet because it would have made me seem like a poor loser...we all know Tropicar was a much nicer looking car than my stock DSM...even I would have voted for it

Frustrated? nah...disappointed...a bit. But now that's it's been discussed, at least I feel like i said my peace.

regardless of what happens with the rules, I wont re-submit...not because I dont think it's fair...but because quite frankly...there are far many nicer HHR's out there. Sure I love my car...but it's a stocker except for the interior...and I dont see any reason to display it for my own personal reasons. I dont need praise or approval...I love it, and that's what counts. as said earlier...my car is CAR OF THE MONTH to me EVERY month.

But I will continue to view/vote for others.

thanks for listening folks.

 

This is exactly why there should be a stock and a not stock category.

 

Is anyone happy with anything?
I've seen the rants, ideas, suggestions & discussion.... any raves?

 

lol I'm happy with life