ELLE 2011 Bloggers' Grand Prix
ENPleasant surprise: my Bubbles Underwater & Beyond are selected for the ELLE 2011 Bloggers' Grand Prix, in the Travel category! It's up to you to vote, by clicking on the little heartuntil December 2.
Vote until December 2
It feels good, I admit. I didn't ask for anything, I didn't sign up anywhere. But SHE has selected me for its Grand Prix des Blogueuses 2011.
It is by an e-mail received this Tuesday that I learned that my Bubbles Underwater & Beyond were among the 10 blogs chosen in the Travel category. Not very proud.
The vote of Internet users counts, in the final choice of the jury. If you like Bubbles Underwater & BeyondIn order to access to this site, please click on the banner below, then on the small heart in the page that will open:
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The system is not very practical: you then have to validate your vote by clicking again on the link you receive by e-mail. (By the way, they are building up quite a mailing list at SHE.)
You can only vote once a day. That's normal.
But what skews the thing is that there can only be one voter per IP address... I realized this at the office. A few of my well-meaning, click-worthy (too nice) colleagues saw the message pop up, "You've already voted today." Yep, all computers share the same connection....
😂
Well, that said, you who don't work with me, you have the right to click every day, from home or at work, until December 2nd!
I am not a beast to contest
The truth is, I'm not really the kind of person who runs around blogging contests. I don't like to beg for clicks all the time...
Of course, I'll do a little stimulus on Facebook and Twitterbut not too much either. It pollutes the walls, begging for votes, like that. And then it can annoy, in the long run.
Nevertheless, after Glamour and Marie Claire in 2009 and then the Info Cup in 2010, this blog will end up making me look like a contest beast... Even if, by not wanting to ask for too many clicks, I have the art to end up being an eternal second!
This time, as in Marie Claire, maybe I can hope to finish at the top of my category, namely Travel. But the jury's final choice will probably be on a Beauty, Fashion or Cooking blog ... We're at home SHEI don't care. I don't really care, though. I'm already very happy to think that this contest should help people discover Bubbles Underwater & Beyond to new readers.
As for the lots (Olympus compact cameras), I must admit that they do not fascinate me especially, since I am already more than well equipped with my Canon Eos 7D and some valuable objectives. In fact, the idea of being in the SHE of December 23 is titillating me much more, I confess...
But I'm not going to sulk. So I'm playing the game! Hence this post and this call for clicks... Here's to your heart, ladies and gentlemen! (And I'll take you back to Indonesia in the next post, I promise.)
😎
😉 Well, that's a good thing. You had to find the p'tt coeur. But now I've voted, and I'll be voting again... For the moment you're in the lead... Come on, ladies and gentlemen, let's have a little heart for the little bubbles ....
Voted ! good luck to the little bubbles!
Ditto. Good luck 🙂 😀
I voted too, and I'm going to do so until December 2, because the blog is “worth it”... 😉
Voted!!!
@isaM @nani @Yo @ysbilia @Manta: Many thanks!!! Keep it up, day after day!!! 🙂
Bravo! I vote with both hands! That's great for a great site!
It's nice to vote with both hands, miss or madam “the other girl”, 😉 but it'll never be just one vote! Everyone who appreciates this blog, and rightly so, please remember to vote regularly, every day! 🙂
I vote with discretion, but I do it. No worries 😉
Well done !
I'm not much of a contestant, but I'll make an effort for you 🙂
@TheOtherGirl: Two hands? That's two clicks... If it's discreet, it's perfect !!! 😆
@Ysbilia: I'm going to have to start a fan club in the Basque country... 😉
@Fabrice: Thanks Fabrice, that's nice. I assure you, I'm not much of a contestant myself. But I'm not going to pretend I'm not interested either... 🙂
sometimes we do a little flipper in the morning to get in shape, today it's a little click for the little bubble.... And here's one more! Watch out for Argentina hot on your heels, but for now you're still in the lead..... because you're worth it!
@isaM: Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Similar support, it's precious... 🙂 I can see Argentina going back up, but I'm hesitant to flood my Facebook wall with new calls to vote. People will end up unsubscribing if I pester them with this... 😆
A vote 🙂 Good luck!
@Gauthier: Nice, thanks a lot!!! 🙂
@Manta: Absolutely. That's the whole point: you have to keep voting, day after day. That's the hard part, getting people to come back and click. Many thanks for your support, it's really nice!!! 🙂
I confirm, we can vote every day ... at home it works ...
Voted !!
@Alimata: Great, thanks!!! And feel free to do it again every day, until December 2... 😉
C voté... enfin pour aujourd'hui 8) des p'tites bulles, on en redemande tous les jours alors me faut un post-it pour remettre cela demain ❗
@auxBulles: Yeehaaahhh !!! Many thanks, this daily support is really precious !!!
🙂
Allez hop un p'tit vote en passant et de 3 ❗ j'vais y prendre goût 8)
Your reminders are not useless, because sometimes you admit to letting a day go by. I hope you'll be able to drink your bubbles and toast all your supporters. Argentina is close behind. One week to go.
I hope you'll be able to drink bubbles too! 😉 Especially after these days of suspense: Your little bubbles are getting ahead of themselves, and hop, Argentina is back!
It's funny to think that both sides have loyal fans who click regularly...
🙂
Ah Mademoizelle, now might be a good time to mobilize the site's regulars to vote for the finish, making it clear that it doesn't generate spam (I've checked), that it takes 20 seconds and that you have to do it every day.
Two simple and complementary methods: first a reminder article that's natural and legitimate (it's the 28th, happy birthday myself, and it ends on the 2nd), then an e-mail to all the addresses retrieved via precisely these comments (go through the back-office) saying that it would be nice to do it, attaching the direct link and explaining the click and confirmation. Hmm... it'll take an hour at most, according to my WordPress experience.
It would be a shame to have the sprint win.
Greetings from a Dinannais from the south of France, bravo for this site, and no doubt direct contact soon.
Denis, ardent supporter
Totally agree with Denis, reminders never hurt and it's true that it's fun to see the scores rising, still holding their own against Argentina (but showing solidity and resilience). While you're in Egypt, you've got supporters who are still voting (I've stuck a post-it note on my computer, it's handy!). Come on, cheer up, we're keeping a close eye on things.
@all: Oh dear, if you only knew... I'm having a hell of a time connecting from Egypt. All I've got is a poor 3G key, and I can't even publish a post. The admin interface takes forever to appear (when it wants to). I don't even know where the votes stand tonight... Elle's page is incomplete. So, I can only count on your mobilization !!! 🙂
A helping hand for this to happen
Allez dernière ligne droite ❗ Faut garder le rythme ❗ Mais de toute façon c bien connu les p'tites bulles montent et c pas fini 8)
Watch out, the gap is closing, we need to mobilize our reserves for the final sprint! Happy birthday Denis, I recognize you: you're resourceful, it's not the time to burst the bubble with two days to go!
O sagacious Tutu, the bubble was unstuck two days ago, it seems, which should be confirmed on the one hand by an attentive Pyrenean, and, with regard to the differentials applied, a logarithmy Palmipec (like the diatonic orthoryninque).
But alas, yes, three times yes (and then a no, that's two and I'll keep seven), I note a very pronounced, albeit delayed, archimedic anti-poussée (D+2, you'd say at the Post Office). All the more so, above all - and probably even more - promising to last.
The exercise at the last top shows a -53, i.e. a sudden +36 between 12.51 and 7.53 p.m. for the competition; compared with the very soft +9 of the philophylactère team. The claws are tightening. And vice versa, with Argentina counting.
Also, because the hour is grave and we must agree, in clepshydre and dieze irae. In all sub-aquatic sub-equation, I therefore urge everyone to play the tuba in their ecosystem.
Having been a birthday, I am momentarily tragically old and weary. Like a Cyber Cherry Fukushima tsunami with periwinkles, I doubt to bloom again.
Ego scrypton (- me kekilabu?)
I see a 732 against 745 this morning, which in my opinion is (very) suspicious and does not correspond at all to natural evolutions between 8.19pm yesterday and 10.09am just now. Of yesterday's 53-point lead, 40 have disappeared. 80 votes since 7.53pm last night.
This is a classic case study applied on a reduced scale.
To put it even more clearly, in less than a day, from 12.51pm yesterday to 10.14am today, the daily vote went from 56 votes/day for the Bubbles and 65 for Argentina (this from 28th to 29th) to... 49 votes/day against... 114 (from 29th to 30th). Votes taken overnight, apparently.
(Ah yes, people aren't in front of their computers at night 🙂 Logically, these are bogus addresses with IP changes. I suspect that this trick is used in other categories, given the difference in scores. But here, it's blatant :)
There are two solutions.
The honorable one is to do yourself what I've done, mobilize the people you know. Really do it. For Corinne, this can also mean sending an e-mail to her colleagues, who can of course vote from home. It can also be done very quickly via social networks. Do you have children? Do they have Facebook pages? Go ahead. It goes really fast.
The other method is dishonorable, and that's exactly what I'm assuming across the street: creating bogus serial addresses and changing IP addresses. Not sure, but probable. There are several solutions for this, and each address can vote.
In between, there's also the option of contacting Elle to check. The use of such a method, which would be unfair, is signed by, on the one hand
- by the regular rhythm of votes over a period of “n” (one of the home-made methods is to disconnect/re- disconnect your freebox to change IP... ah well, you have to wait for the brute to leave - so it starts, it stops, it votes every 2 minutes... to simulate 50 votes, it spreads out over 2 hours or more (*)
- and no doubt by the use of few mail services (radical types @free.fr; @gmail.com; @hotmail.fr; etc - even bizarro ones).
Anyone want to do it? Get in touch and see for yourself? At the same time, you can tell them that the same manipulation is suspected in other categories where score contrasts are not natural, and that this may well discredit them.
In all probability, there will be a repeat tonight. The cheater in front of you is likely to reuse his method, adding new fake addresses and a little more skill for good measure, if he's read me. In any case, the damage is undoubtedly done in his case.
So the first question is: to mobilize or not to mobilize. As I was saying to Guy T. (my guess), I can't “invent” votes. It's not in my code of ethics. I mobilized and the impact was visible. If you do the same, that's normally enough.
cordially
Denis
(*) Although more serious, the same features are visible with software help. You still have to type in the address, click, confirm, disconnect the mail service, relaunch another and so on.
From Egypt, where I am at the moment, I would like to thank you all once again for your mobilization and support!
@Denis: well, even if there's cheating on the other side, it's no big deal... it's only a game after all! It's only fun to win at this kind of thing if you really manage to get people involved. Which my little blog manages to do despite everything!!! 🙂
So, we all continue to vote, to mobilize, to vote family and friends ... See you on December 3 for the final result! We believe in !
8)
PS. To make you wait, some underwater photos taken in Egypt, at the end of this link -> http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2773036164666.154366.1220901301&type=1&l=4a320c891e
That's me, Denis. I followed this duel between the 2 leading blogs with the passion of a child (which I'm not exactly anymore). Every day, and almost every hour, I noted the progress of the scores and the gap. Last night I went to bed late, reassured for Corinne: 716/663, a 53-point lead.
I woke up early this morning to find 735/730: the gap down to 5 pts! Stupefaction and incomprehension. Which reserve troop has intervened en masse? Night magic or Sioux tactics?
Tonight I read you, Denis. I would be technically incapable of carrying out (?) such an operation; morally, even less so. Yet a “deus ex machina” seems to have intervened, and the passion has fallen.
Corinne, philosophical, declares “if..., it's no big deal, it's just a game after all”. Bravo for sportsmanship. But for kids like me, “it's not a game anymore!” and the enchantment is gone. It was bad enough for Santa Claus, but now it's bad enough!
“Grouchy? It was Blücher!” Victor Hugo, an old chap, a bit like Santa Claus.
Let's wait for the end, hopefully fair and square, after all. Will I wake up happy tomorrow? But it's already tomorrow, I vote and sleep.
and one more..... fair and square, as Denis and Papseudo say and as the x bubble supporters who helped you reach 740 votes (Dec. 1 at 12 noon) certainly think. The game is the game and isn't the important thing to know that we were there to support you? I'll only be able to vote once more, but I'll do it. I promise!
I finally understood from your comments why my children and husband couldn't vote... and accused me of using their email address !!!!!!!!!!
On the bright side, I'll be able to clear my name 😀
But the cheating hypothesis really saddens me. But that certainly hasn't stopped me from doing my little daily vote 🙂
One more vote ❗ They climb, they climb the little bubbles 8)
No, I don't think it's cheating, but probably people who like the competing blog and vote from Argentina, so there's a time difference, and it's at night that their clicks add up.
Let's all make lots of little bubbles in the last wave and let's get a tidal wave of clicks !!
Denis' demonstration was apparently a deterrent, as there were no distortions in the voting patterns last night.
The time difference is indeed plausible, ysbilia, and soothing for the fairness of this exciting competition. All we need is for the Earth to make sure it doesn't drag its feet like it did on the night of the 29th to the 30th: our days are already so short!
C m1tenan kil fo voT !!! Sent lassoce! If bubble pert ...... mwa Gkri has L !!!
C Tro Dgoute
Dgueu LA TRICHE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nikola
tmtc the fami
One last vote ❗ 8)
Soon 1000 ... go !!!
The best has won, quality and morals are intact, and this contest was exciting right to the end.
Thank you and congratulations Corinne!
The votes are still open 997 ... go, reach 1000! who will have the vote N ° 1000 ????
Congratulations to the little bubbles!
What unbearable suspense!!! 😆
Well, it's December 3, but the voting module is still active... So as long as we can click, eh... let's click!!!!
🙄
Otherwise, for the time being, ELLE is not reacting. We'll probably have to wait for their jury's decision to find out who the category winners are (it seems that the number of clicks isn't the only criterion). But when? It's a mystery.
But who cares, because I think I can safely say that my Petites Bulles d'Ailleurs have won the great contest of solidarity and mobilization! And that's just great!
😀
To everyone: a huge thank you for your daily support and all your encouragement, here or on Facebook, which has really touched me. I still can't believe I've managed to gather so many people around my blog. I got hooked, and obviously you did too... So it doesn't matter whether I “officially” win this contest or not. You guys are amazing!
🙂
11am and dust. I will not be the 1000th. I have exhausted my daily vote tonight at 00:03! But that the votes are still open the day after the closing, it's still a bit nonsense! Anyway, I enjoyed participating in your success, I got into the game ... What a marathon! Bravo Corinne, it is your bubbles that proudly cross the finish line and rightly arrive at the top!
PS - Cuckoo Manta ... see you soon
Ah la la.... ça m'énerve ça....There are rules, aren't there?
Anyway, “Petites Bulles d'Ailleurs” is the best of Blogs!!!!!NA!!!!!!!
yes, there's some kind of “little malfunction” in the rules or site management, but we know that at midnight on Friday December 2nd, ”petites bulles” was well ahead, so let's rejoice, she's won and gathered a lot of readers and supporters around her blog, and that's the main thing :-)
Bravo aux “petites bulles”, his blog is fascinating, from every point of view, content, container, quality of layout, images, texts, etc, etc.... .
We expect new bubbles always sparkling and bright.
Congratulations again 😉
Indeed, I think the solidarity and enthusiasm generated by this competition have been remarkable: for me, this is the great success of Petites Bulles and all its fans, and what should make it proud.
Thank you to Corinne for allowing us to share these moments and thank you for continuing to make us dream through this blog.
News at last! As I was saying, I'm delighted to have mobilized so many people around my Petites Bulles d'Ailleurs. Thank you all again for your support!!!
Finally, the "blow of heart" of the ELLE jury will have been for the blog Two Traveling Birds, who is currently introducing us to Thailand, which I love so much... Bravo!
🙂
Below is the e-mail I received on Tuesday:
Hello,
The long-awaited hour of the results of the 2011 ELLE bloggers' Grand Prix has arrived. I do not make you languish any longer, here is the list of our 13 laureates:
Let's start with the 12 favorites of the editorial team:
Fashion: A truly intriguing subject
Chronicles: The Michauré
Cooking: I want to be good
Beauty: Facade remodeling
Drawings: A lizard in Madinina
Creations: Cabinet with hacks
Mothers: But why do I become a damn mother ??!
Society: Pay your precarious
Sex: Tchiiip !!!
Literature: Lectrices and the city
Travel: Two traveling birds
Cinema: Barbara makes her cinema
And the winner of the price of Internet users:
Chronicles: Food'amour
Laureate or not, we would like to congratulate you, first of all for being selected, and then for having campaigned with ardor!
As the question about the awards night was often asked, here are some details that should enlighten you. There will be one in Paris on December 13, but it will only bring together the 13 winners of the Grand Prix.
Another big congratulations!
Florence Chartier
Community Manager
You're our favorite winner... and even though I love Thailand, the winner got very few votes and the blog is very uncluttered and lacks diversity and commentary... I prefer yours!
And so it was the ELLE Jury's "coup de coeur" that made the difference.
It's a bit frustrating all the same, because the jury should have decided for itself, without asking for a vote!
In retrospect, one wonders whether it wasn't simply a marketing and publicity stunt for the magazine, but that the dice had been loaded, that everything had been decided in advance.
For me, for all of us fans of the little bubbles, Corinne's blog is the winner for all the reasons we've mentioned so many times (quality of text and images, diversity of subjects covered, etc., etc.).
Sure, it's just a game, but I have the unpleasant feeling I've been duped! 😡
@Manta: Thank you, Madame Mantaleau!!! That means a lot to me... 😉
@Ysbilia: Yes, that was the principle: a «jury's favorite» prize for each category, and an «Internet users» prize based on the number of clicks. I thought the number of clicks would also help the jury make their choice, but no... 😀
As for the rest, we shouldn't be surprised by ELLE's communication operation «after the fact»: as I said in the article above, this kind of thing is designed to build up mailing lists, for marketing reasons, of course... Nobody's fooled! It's just a contest for bloggers, with its own rules. Afterwards, you play or you don't... I wanted to play!!!
I'm already really happy to have been selected, and then to have mobilized so many people around my Little Bubbles... It's a real pleasure!!! 🙂
Yeah....still...I have to admit that I'm a bit annoyed...because I would have liked “Petites Bulles” to win, and it would have been well deserved....